Hi, on Saturday, the 6th of July, from 11:00 to 16:00, the next GCPC takes place. If you are interested, please fill out this dudle until the 27th of June: https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/GCPC_Participants/ Please also send me an email if you have not participated before. Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition.

If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC, here is some more information:

In the GCPC, you will work in teams of two to three people on one(!) computer. There are about 10 tasks, and your goal is to solve as many of them as possible. You send in your solution as a program that is evaluated automatically on some secret testdata. If the program is both correct and fast enough, you have solved the problem. The contest is 5 hours long. If you want to read some example problems, here are those from last year: http://gcpc.nwerc.eu/problemset_2018.pdf Task I would be considered an easy task, while task M is hard. Allowed languages are C++, Java and Python 2 and 3. It is not guaranteed that Python is fast enough to solve every problem, but everything can be solved in C++ and Java. A computer will be provided to you. The operating system will be some Linux using Xfce and with common IDEs, editors and compilers installed. If there is a specific software you would like to use, please tell me; I can probably install it. You are allowed (and encouraged) to bring written/printed materials to the contest, including books, but USB-Sticks, Smartphones, pdfs, using the internet (except the contest system) and other electronic materials are not allowed. You can bring your own keyboard and mouse. Bachelor and Master students of any study course are eligible to participate. PhD-students are also sometimes eligible. Just ask me if you are not sure.

After the GCPC, there will be the NWERC (Northwestern Europe Regional Contest) sometime around November in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Every University can send one to three teams. Usually we find someone who finances the travel and accommodation. Even though the GCPC is a mostly independent training contest, the performance of our best teams may influence how many teams we can send to NWERC.

See you there! Julian