Russian students dominate programming olympiads and American students are not surprised

Original author: SAMUEL BLACKSTONE
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When Alexander Iverson was in the first grades of the school, he learned about subtraction and the course of action. Despite the fact that his answers in class and homework solutions were almost always correct, the teacher did not recognize them as such.

What is the reason? In his more effective method of calculus - in essence, he invented the concept of negative numbers (his class has not yet passed them), and then reorganized the order of actions in accordance with his method, that is, he went against the instructions of the teacher.

Iverson is now a senior fellow, teaches computer science at one of the South Dakota High Schools (SDSMT), and has also participated in the Olympic Games in Computer Programming among Universities in the World.

“It was terrible,” he said. “In essence, I came up with a method that performed tasks better than the one that I was taught and I was punished for that.”

According to Iverson, this experience is a great example of a problem with mathematics and computer science in America, this problem made itself felt clearly on May 24, when the 41st annual international university programming world championship was held in Rapid City.

From about 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., nearly 400 of the best young programmers in the world, consisting of 133 teams, each with three people from 44 countries, competed among themselves. Each of the teams present has already passed through regional competitions in which 46 381 students from 103 countries of the world participated.

After about 5 hours, the results became known.

The first place was taken by the Russian team from the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, having solved 10 problems in the shortest possible time. This is the fourth victory of the Russian school since 2012.

Four other teams from Warsaw University, Seoul National University, St. Petersburg State University and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology also solved 10 problems. In total, Russian and Chinese teams took 9 of the 14 top positions. The University of Central Florida took 13th place, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took 20th place.

“Money is a unit of concern, and apparently we care more about keeping prisoners in prison than about training,” Iverson said.

Iverson added that one of the main reasons he excelled in an area where there are no other American students is due to his self-study outside of school.

Matthew Challencamp, 20, a junior information technology researcher at SDSMT and Iverson's teammate, said his first introduction to computer programming came when he came across a programming textbook in his high school library in South Dakota.

“We really did not have good informatics training programs,” said Schallenkamp.

Both men agreed that the main reason for the success of Russia and China was simple: they begin to learn programming concepts much earlier than Americans.

Larry Payitt, professor of mathematics and computer science at the South Dakota School of Technology and trainer at the SDSMT team, argues that this is not always the case.

“Many of these programs were reduced, while in the 80s I had computer programming in high school for two years and later, when I went to college, it was a huge advantage for me,” said Larry, who took third place at the ICPC World Finals in 1989.

Earlier this year, Payitt, along with Schallenkamp and five other students, went to Russia to the training camp to prepare for the competition. The difference in the teaching of the exact sciences became very clear to him.

“By the time schoolchildren in Russia finish school, they are already trained in the basics of mathematical analysis and programming,” Payitt said. - It turns out that they start preparing for the study of exact sciences at a university about four years earlier, and until recently, every student in Russia had to study mathematics in order to receive a diploma in higher education and therefore they devote much more to mathematics and exact sciences in general attention than our schools. ”

Now in the media there are many new stories about the activities of hackers from Russia and about the interference of the Russian state in foreign elections. Executive Director of the International University Programming Contest William Poucher said that former contestants are not related to hacking activities.

Jeff Donahu, Director of ICPC: “The key to the future is opportunities and how we create these opportunities for people to create, not destroy.”

Regarding the issue of improving the educational system, Paucher said that the answer is simple: “All that needs to be done is to invest more. Anyone who says the problem is not money ... is just cunning. The most important thing is to invest in education. Invest in children. Invest in parents. ”

Iverson claims that education is like a hot pan for politicians. They touch her, burn her, and after that they no longer touch. In his opinion, changes in the principles and approaches to training can give positive results today, and an increase in investment is hardly worth the wait.

“We have very weak incentives and they do not push teachers and schools to optimize learning. Everything goes as it should: teachers teach in the old way, and students acquire knowledge and skills in the same way, ”Iverson said, explaining how standardized tests affect the content of curricula and determine successful schools, successful teachers and students.

Returning to his first skirmishes with the American system of teaching mathematics, Iverson added that he had learned a very important lesson for himself, although not the one he wanted to teach him.

“They are trying to discourage us from studying, to finding a new interesting way to do something, to find out how to use it effectively and then put it into practice,” he said. “I think that if it were encouraged and rewarded, it would be interesting for students to learn.”

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