Germany's best computer science talent honored
They solved complex problems, convinced in discussions with experts, and proved to be team players - now the five best young computer science talents from all over Germany have been determined: The winners of the 41st National Computer Science Competition were awarded at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) today. During the past two days, a total of 26 finalists had demonstrated their skills in the final round in Karlsruhe.
In two competition rounds, in which more than 1,600 students from all over Germany participated, 26 finalists had qualified for the final round of the annual talent competition. For two days, the young top computer science talents had to face research-related problems at KIT and solve them in group and individual work. The youngsters were confronted with the most difficult problems known in computer science. Algorithms around structured symbolic expressions as well as strings were in the foreground: These topics, which are on the formal side, play an important role in various areas of computer science.
These are the national winners:
From left to right:
Philip Gilde, 18, from Berlin (Rosa-Luxemburg-Gymnasium, Berlin-Pankow)
Raphael Gaedtke, 18, from Winnweiler (Wilhelm-Erb-Gymnasium, Winnweiler)
Chuyang Wang, 19, from Telgte (Johanneum High School, Ostbevern)
Finn Rudolph, 18, from Pommersfelden (Höchstadt a.d. Aisch High School, Höchstadt)
Selma Hübner, 17, from Hann. Münden (Schloss Hansenberg boarding school, Geisenheim)
The young talents each receive prize money of 750 euros.
Ingo Wegener Prize
The performance of Finn Rudolph was particularly outstanding, and he also received the Ingo Wegener Prize, which includes prize money of 500 euros.
Other prize winners include Jannik Hammerschmied, Tobias Hettler, Christian Schefe, Annika Schmidt and Moritz Schwalm, who were also honored for their impressive achievements. They will receive 500 euros in prize money.
"Once again, outstanding young computer science talents have presented themselves at the National Computer Science Competition. The young people's achievements, including their handling of open questions that were new to them, were very impressive," commented Professor Christoph Weidenbach, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Bundeswettbewerb Informatik.
"Introducing students to computer science at an early stage and thus preparing them for the challenges of a digitized society is an urgent concern for us!" says Professor Bernhard Beckert, Dean of the KIT Faculty of Computer Science. "A competition that aims to arouse enthusiasm for computer science topics among young people and to convey a fundamental understanding of the field already during school years fits this claim perfectly." For this purpose, the KIT itself offers the study program Computer Science Teaching and a Teaching-Learning-Laboratory Computer Science as a learning place for pupils.
The national computer science competition makes high technical demands on the participants. The winners are therefore usually accepted into the renowned German National Academic Foundation. In addition, the younger finalists are given the chance to qualify for the German team at the International Olympiad in Informatics in Egypt in 2024.
About the Bundeswettbewerb Informatik
The Bundeswettbewerb Informatik is the most traditional of the nationwide computer science competitions. The nationwide computer science competitions have set themselves the task of awakening interest in computer science as well as discovering and supporting computer science talent. They are sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The sponsors are the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), the Fraunhofer ICT Group and the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science. The Bundeswettbewerb Informatik are student competitions sponsored by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany and are under the patronage of the Federal President. The National Computer Science Competition makes an important contribution to attracting outstanding young people to computer science and to shaping the information and communication society. Among the former participants are now professors and company founders.