Programming & Real Life: Results of the PROD Olympiad
The HSE Cultural Centre recently hosted an awards ceremony for the winners of the PROD Olympiad. This is the first-ever industrial IT-development competition for 9th–11th graders in Russia, organised by HSE University, Tinkoff Bank, and the Central University (Moscow). About 4,000 people from 89 regions of Russia, as well as from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, China, and Turkmenistan, participated in the qualifying stage, with 43 people emerging as eventual winners.
The HSE Academic Supervisor, Yaroslav Kuzminov, addressed the participants of the award ceremony.
In his opinion, this initiative to hold the PROD Olympiad, launched by Tinkoff, is a significant step forward because product creation involves much more than just programming. ‘It is programming plus real life, teamwork, market assessment, and interacting with services that will promote your product,’ explained Yaroslav Kuzminov.
In his opinion, this initiative to hold the PROD Olympiad, launched by Tinkoff, is a significant step forward because product creation involves much more than just programming. ‘It is programming plus real life, teamwork, market assessment, and interacting with services that will promote your product,’ explained Yaroslav Kuzminov.
The Olympiad consisted of two qualifying stages and one final stage, which, in turn, was divided into two rounds—individual (online) and team (offline). In the individual round, participants performed tasks on specific pathways—‘backend,’ ‘frontend,’ and ‘mobile development,’ while in the team round, representatives of these different tracks became teams of 3–5 people to develop full-stack applications.
While completing these tasks, schoolchildren interacted with mentors, including developers from Tinkoff and students from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, who advised them on writing code, and product managers, who helped understand the task from the customer’s side, as well as examining the functional features of the project. The PROD jury included leading developers from Tinkoff, as well as professors from HSE University and the Central University.
The awards ceremony recognised the participants of the Olympiad who demonstrated the best results in the individual round for their chosen track. As Mikhail Kuznetsov, a visiting lecturer from the Tinkoff Department of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science who was responsible for the ‘mobile development’ track, pointed out, the same requirements were presented to the schoolchildren as to Tinkoff employees, and the proposed IT solutions reached the level of diploma theses.
Winners of the team round were also recognised. Denis Sin, Academic Supervisor of the Educational Programme ‘Design and Development of Information Products’ and lecturer of the Tinkoff Department, emphasised that even a strong developer cannot create a successful application alone in real life, so teamwork is a vital part of the process.
To become an Olympiad winner, one had to excel both in the individual and team rounds.
Vice President, Director for Information Technology at Tinkoff Vyacheslav Tsyganov and HSE Vice Rector Sergey Roshchin announced the names of third place winners.
‘When I look at you, I can’t differentiate between the schoolchildren and who are my IT employees,’ Vyacheslav Tsyganov told the finalists. ‘About 30 per cent of our company's employees are junior developers who joined our team after graduating, or are still studying.’ In his opinion, it is precisely these young people who innovate better than others—they have neither familiar boundaries nor standards imposed by an IT director.
Sergey Roshchin in his welcoming speech emphasised the teamwork component of the PROD Olympiad. ‘Both university and work are always collective endeavours. We all develop through collaborations. It is impossible to move forward in innovation, especially in IT, without combining the efforts of those who have the tools and the subject knowledge, those who have fundamental knowledge and those who can solve applied problems,’ he explained.
The awards for second class winners were presented by Chairman of the Tinkoff Bank Board of Directors Stanislav Bliznyuk and Dean of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science Ivan Arzhantsev.
As Stanislav Bliznyuk said, today it is not enough to be strong academically, that is, to know mathematics and programming. It is important to develop other skills—curiosity, a readiness to respond to challenges, the ability to work in a team, to set priorities, and to present results.
‘The ideal scenario is when you tackle real problems, when millions can use your solutions, and at the same time, you have the opportunity to do what you love and be proud of the product you create,’ concluded Stanislav Bliznyuk.
In turn, Ivan Arzhantsev reminded the audience that the HSE Faculty of Computer Science recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and that the faculty is currently hosting the ‘Days of Computer Science’ festival. He also highlighted the recent award ceremony of the DANO Data Analysis Olympiad, another successful and popular event.
‘We had four bachelor's programmes in the field of Applied Mathematics and Information Science and one in Software Engineering. This summer, we will start accepting applications for the second programme in this direction—Information Product Design and Development, and the winners and participants of the PROD Olympiad will surely be eager to become its students. You have coped with the tasks, gained invaluable experience, and we are absolutely confident in you,’ the Dean of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science emphasised.
HSE Vice Rector Irina Martusevich and Rector of the Central University Evgeniy Ivashkevich announced the winners of the Olympiad.
The PROD Olympiad diploma provides a wide range of benefits and advantages. 11th graders who became winners of the final stage are entitled to a 90 per cent discount on tuition for the joint programme ‘Information Product Design and Development’ at HSE University and Central University’ while other prize-winners receive a 75 per cent discount. Central University provides a fast track for admission and a grant covering the full cost of tuition for the winners of the final stage for students in grades 10–11. In addition to the fast track, prize-winners receive a grant covering 50% of the tuition fee, and participants in the final stage receive 25%. Other prizes can be found here (website in Russian).
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