CEOI 2002 - Central European Olympiad in Informatics 2002

by Gabriela Andrejková and Jan Vinar

CEOI 2002 took place from 30 June to 6 July 2002 in the Slovakian city of Kosice, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic.

ERCIM played an important role both in organising this event (the three organising bodies - the Faculty of Science of P. J. Safárik University, the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University, and the Slovak Society for Computer Science are connected with ERCIM as members of SRCIM) and in providing necessary funds by means of a financial grant.

The participating teams from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (with 60 contestants and team leaders in all) demonstrated their skills in writing and testing programs by solving six problems ranging from graph theory to theory of games. The solutions were evaluated automatically, taking into account accuracy (including borderline cases) as well as the time and space complexity of the algorithms. Three gold medals were awarded: the winner was Peter Bella from Slovakia, and the next two places were taken by Victor Costan and Daniel Dumitran from Romania.

The CEOI, which is open to secondary school students in Central Europe, aims to:

• encourage students' interest in informatics and information technology in general
• test and prove their competence in solving problems with the help of computers
• promote the exchange of knowledge and experience with other students of similar interests and qualifications
• help establish personal contacts between young people of the Central European region.

Additionally, its purpose is to provide training for the students participating in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), and to initiate discussion and cooperation in informatics education in the secondary schools of Central European countries. In our view this, the ninth CEOI, was successful in fulfilling these aims. Next year's CEOI will be held in Münster, Germany, and Poland will host CEOI 2004.

Please contact:
Gabriela Andrejková
P. J. Safárik University, Kosice (SRCIM)
Tel: +421 95 62 21 128
E-mail: andrejk@kosice.upjs.sk