Gulf Programming Contest to take place in Kuwait for the Second Time

● 44 Teams from 15 universities across the GCC to participate at the event.

● Six teams from GUST due to participate

● GPC prepares students for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) regional and world programming contest.

Kuwait City, March XX, 2017: Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) today announced that they will be hosting the seventh Gulf Programming Contest (GPC), due to take place on its campus on March 22nd and 23rd. The competition, sponsored by That Al Salasil, and under the patronage of the Private Universities Council, will be attended by Dr. Waleed Mural Al Kandari, Undersecretary General for Information and Research. It is organized by the Computer Science Department at GUST, and will host 44 teams from across the GCC.

The Gulf Programming Contest provides an opportunity for university students from around the region majoring in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Management Information Systems, or any IT related subjects to display their abilities in programming and problem solving. The teams will be given eight to ten programming problems to be solved using one PC only. Participating in this contest gives the students the opportunity to prepare for the Arab Collegiate Programming Contest (ACPC), a qualifying round to the ACM ICPC (Association for Computer Machinery – International Collegiate Programming Contest) World Finals. Many contestants who qualified to the regional and world programming contests are currently working in the most prestigious workplaces such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, and Booking.com

Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Salah Al-Saharan, said, “The value or participating in this competition is that one learns how to work as a team to accomplish a goal. These are vital skills necessary for success, and when combined with cutting-edge computer-programming talents, we are confident that our students are equipped for success after graduation.”

GPC is an extension of the National Programming Contest that was first initiated in the United Arab Emirates. In 2011, the decision was made to expand the contest to include the universities in the Gulf region. Kuwait was the first country to participate from outside the UAE, and GUST was the first university to represent Kuwait at the competition.

Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Iqbal AlShammari, said “Our students continuously demonstrate creativity, enthusiasm, and diligence, which will propel them far in this competition. Additionally, GPC provides contestants with extracurricular projects that gives them the chance to learn in a competitive yet collaborative environment that is hard to achieve in regular classrooms.”

This year, more teams and universities across the region are participating in the contest, which cements the position of Computer Science as a field of growth and importance. Some of the universities participating this year are Qatar University and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, King Faisal University and Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University from Saudi Arabia, Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Khalifa University, and UAE University from the Emirates, and Sultan Qaboos University and College of Applied Sciences-Sohar from Oman. The other institutions to participate from Kuwait are the American University of Kuwait, Kuwait Technical College, Kuwait University, and the Arab Open University.

Last year, GUST also hosted the GPC 2016 competition, where 32 teams from 12 universities competed from across the Gulf Region. The team “Travelling Salesman” from Khalifa University (UAE) won the first place, team “Kofta” from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar won second place, and third place was awarded to team “Cyclon3” from American University of Kuwait.

Further information about the competition can be found on https://gpc.gust.edu.kw.