Carnegie Mellon team is first to represent Qatar at programming world championship

Doha, Qatar, 02 April, 2024 -Three computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) have made history by becoming the first team to represent Qatar at the world championship of the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC). 

The team won the Qatar national competition in September, beating out more than 200 students for the top spot. They represented Qatar at the Africa-Arab regionals in Egypt, and after a strong showing they advanced to the world championship later this year.

The winning team consists of computer science third-year student Andrey Genze, and seniors Ulan Seitkaliyev and Gulnaz Serikbay. 

Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q, said: “Computer science education in Qatar has come very far in just a few short years. The first Qatar national competition took place only three years ago, and this year we have a team advance to the world finals. We are exceptionally proud to contribute to the culture of programming and problem solving in Qatar.”

Giselle Reis is the area head of computer science at CMU-Q, and a key organizer of the Qatar national competition: “The CMU-Q team’s showing in Egypt places them among the top 1% competitive programmers in the world. This is an amazing achievement. We are delighted that Qatar is on the programming competition map.”

The ICPC world championship is the most prestigious programming competition at the university level. During the five-hour competition, teams solve a series of programming questions. The questions require creative thinking and very strong coding and reasoning skills.

Reis believes the future is bright for programming in Qatar. “The second place team representing Qatar at the regionals is made up of all first-year students at CMU-Q,” she said. 

Placing twentieth among 116 teams, George Chkhaidze, Diyorbek Ibragimov, and Khakimjanov Khasanboy are only in their second semester of studies at CMU-Q.

“With so many high school students and younger university students interested in programming in Qatar, I believe Qatar’s position will only strengthen and grow,” said Reis.