10 teams of high school students will compete in the finals of the programming competition – Education, webinars

In order to demonstrate to the wider public the ideas of high school students, who with the help of programming solve a pressing problem for a group of society and to promote young people’s interest in the field of programming, Riga Business School, as a structural unit of Riga Technical University, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as the technology company LMT, announced a programming competition for high school students this spring for the work developed in the Programming subject. 28 project applications were received from 20 Latvian schools. All submitted projects are represented by 52 young people.

According to the rules of the competition, the programming solutions submitted until April 26 of this year were evaluated by the jury – Riga Business School and representatives of the education sector. The jury evaluated the submitted projects according to the following criteria: defining the problem, demonstrating the programming solution in action, describing the progress of the project development, main challenges, successes and lessons learned. Teams of students prepared videos in which they presented the progress of the project and their solutions to a current problem in society. In order for the jury to access the videos, the students added a YouTube link to their application.

After evaluating all submitted applications, the jury nominated 10 teams for the finals, where half of the teams represent various schools in Riga, while the other half represent schools in various other cities of Latvia. In the final of the competition on May 11, in the premises of Riga Business School, the following will meet: RTU Engineering High School team with the solution “ISS Explorer”, Sigulda City High School team with the “FLIR” solution, Daugavpils Technological High School-Lyceum team with the “ENVX” solution, Riga State Technical School team with the solution “SafetySphere”, Riga 80th high school team with the solution “Creating a deep learning sign language recognition algorithm with the Tensorflow library”, RTU Engineering High School team with the “AI DIARY” solution, Salaspils 1st high school team with the “Learn Python!” solution, Sigulda city high school team with the solution “Measurement system”, Rīga 25th high school team with the solution “System for saving time of programming teachers”, Rēzekne State 1st gymnasium team with the solution “Didactic mathematics multiplication computer game “Exciting mathematics””.

Claudio Rivera, director of Riga Business School: “We thank all the young people and their teachers for the initiative they have shown in submitting their programming projects developed during school. The teaching staff of every represented secondary school can be proud of their students’ achievements and innovative solutions. The programming competition confirms that what was learned during school should be applicable outside of school as well, and students should be motivated to use the acquired knowledge and skills in solving everyday problems as well.”

The solutions presented in the final will be evaluated by representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science, LMT and Riga Business School. In addition to the aforementioned criteria, the documentation and technical solution will also be evaluated in the final.

For winning the competition, regardless of whether they developed a solution individually or in a team, each student will receive prizes for the purchase of technology at LMT customer centers – for 1st place – worth 300 euros, for 2nd place – 150 euros, and for 3rd place – 100 euros . The teachers of the first three teams will also receive prizes – each worth 100 euros.

According to the data available from the Ministry of Education and Science, Programming I is currently taught in 139 schools in Latvia, and Programming II in 115 schools. The programming contest is one of the initiatives that promotes greater attraction of young people to the field of programming and strengthens the learning of technology not only in higher education, but also in schools.

The programming competition organized by Riga Business School is taking place for the second year. 27 teams participated in last year’s competition, 10 of which were invited to the finals of the competition.

Riga Business School