Programming contest to test students

Al Ain: Young computer programmers from the UAE and other Gulf countries will vie for the top prize in the National Programming Contest (NPC '08) early next month at the UAE University.

The NPC '08, to be organised by the College of Information Technology (CIT) on April 3, will test the problem solving abilities of programmers over a five-hour test.

Contestants can use programming languages such as C++ and Java.

"NPC brings together top university students from all around the UAE and other Gulf countries to compete in problem solving and computer programming puzzles," said Professor Rafic Makki, Dean of the CIT.

The NPC '08 follows the international model and standards advocated by ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery).

Points are awarded based on the correctness, speed, and number of problems solved.