Support our students
Remember your first program? Surely it was written in some Pascal or Basic during school years. And then spun: new languages, algorithms, frameworks ... and here we are.
Right now in Russia there are a lot of talented guys following in our footsteps. Fortunately, the current generation has smart IDEs, high-speed Internet, and a huge amount of educational materials at hand. As a result, students much earlier begin to engage in serious projects. For example, an 11th grade student made a distributed computing system based on browsers of site visitors:
(I will tell about this project in more detail under the cut)
')
This is just one of many school research projects. The best of them will be presented in St. Petersburg on February 3, 2016 at 14:00 at the Baltic Science and Engineering Competition .
I invite everyone to come, see and chat with young inventors. After all, the young programmer, who created something from scratch for the first time in his life, is VERY important to hear the assessment of his work from real IT specialists.
Once a Petersburg schoolboy named Sasha thought that he spends most of his time at the computer exclusively in the browser. At the same time, the core i7 that is inside the computer, in fact, stands idle for 80% of the time. But such people like him are hundreds of millions of people ... Sasha thought: “Is it possible to somehow use the power of my computer for something useful?” Soon he learned about “voluntary calculations” and BOINC .
As befits an engineer, Sasha noted the shortcomings of the voluntary distributed computing systems existing on the market:
Sasha decided to make a distributed computing system in which these problems are solved. On the one hand - to make a convenient java-library for distributed computing, which could be easily connected to the code of your application by writing a couple of lines of code. On the other hand, to make a script for a site that, when inserted into a page, turns “useless” users viewing photos of cats into useful users who, without harm to the speed of the browser, help their core i7 to detect cancer or predict the weather without being noticed. In order to build such a system, the student has studied dozens of new technologies for a year: from server-side Java to compiling C ++ code in javascript and the features of javascript in the browser.
The result was a working system. You can view the server code on Tomcat , the Java library to be connected , and the test application that picks up a password using the md5 hash in the cloud using the library. Not without experiments: experiments showed that already 13 browsers with javascript overtake one native C ++ application (and if Chrome users, browser calculations overtake C ++ already on five browsers).
Sasha successfully presented the project at the Baltic Science and Engineering Competition in St. Petersburg, took 1st place and won a trip to the States on Intel ISEF . There was just presented a stand from the beginning of the article:
(click to enlarge image)
After a trip to the States, Sasha enrolled at ITMO and literally from his first year joined the server development team of one of the famous St. Petersburg startups, where in his free time he helps build a “new Google / Facebook / SpaceX”.
This is not the only successful project. At the Baltic competition each year represent more than 150 projects on completely different topics, for example:
Firstly, participation in a research project significantly helps a student to understand very well “who will I be when I grow up?” Before entering a university. The risks of entering the wrong university and minimizing a lot of time are not minimized.
Secondly, the school is a wonderful time when, as a rule, the burden of obligations has not yet fell on a young specialist.
Third, any new knowledge is learned in youth with greater efficiency.
You can ask: what's the research project? There are dozens of other competitions for both schoolchildren and students. Programming Olympiad, we win that year.
It is important to understand the key difference between the research project and the Olympiad. In the Olympiad, the task is to solve the problem that has been solved before. A research project is done a year and quite often solves a problem that no one has yet solved. Even on such a basic comparison, it is already becoming clear that a research project is an activity that is much more similar to the construction of the conditional “next Google”.
I repeat exactly what I started. For a young programmer who has created something from scratch for the first time in his life, it is VERY important to hear the assessment of his work from real IT specialists. The nearest such opportunity will be provided in St. Petersburg on February 3, 2016 at 14:00 ( registration ).
In addition to standard financial sponsorship options, companies can present schoolchildren with ideas for projects from their fields that they could work on.
In the States, the largest such competition Intel ISEF is most actively sponsored (by surprise!) By the largest IT companies.
Unfortunately, not everything is so smooth here. In 2014, for example, the activity of business sponsors was rather low, and the competition had to raise funds through crowdfunding so that the event could remain free for schoolchildren. This year, the picture has not improved much: in connection with the well-known closure of the Dynasty Foundation , which previously supported the Baltic Competition , the competition once again requires the support of ordinary members of the IT community who have realized their responsibility for the common future, too. Habr's rules do not allow me to leave a direct link to the crowdfunding campaign, who really wants to help financially, he will find.
PS
When I tell my friends about the whole topic, I often hear the saddest comment: “Anyway, then these schoolchildren will leave the country. Everything is useless ... ”.
There are no illusions here: in the modern world, talented specialists often leave for those countries in which they can maximize their potential without unnecessary undue risks.
However, I am sure that in 10-15 years in our country a lot will change. A comfortable environment will be created for the creation and development of hundreds of “new Google / Facebook / SpaceX”. When this happens, I am sure that even those participants in the competition who decide to leave Russia will eventually return here to build such global leading IT companies.
They will definitely return if they remember how we once supported our initiatives at the competition. Support?
Right now in Russia there are a lot of talented guys following in our footsteps. Fortunately, the current generation has smart IDEs, high-speed Internet, and a huge amount of educational materials at hand. As a result, students much earlier begin to engage in serious projects. For example, an 11th grade student made a distributed computing system based on browsers of site visitors:
(I will tell about this project in more detail under the cut)
')
This is just one of many school research projects. The best of them will be presented in St. Petersburg on February 3, 2016 at 14:00 at the Baltic Science and Engineering Competition .
I invite everyone to come, see and chat with young inventors. After all, the young programmer, who created something from scratch for the first time in his life, is VERY important to hear the assessment of his work from real IT specialists.
I promised to tell the story of a school project.
Once a Petersburg schoolboy named Sasha thought that he spends most of his time at the computer exclusively in the browser. At the same time, the core i7 that is inside the computer, in fact, stands idle for 80% of the time. But such people like him are hundreds of millions of people ... Sasha thought: “Is it possible to somehow use the power of my computer for something useful?” Soon he learned about “voluntary calculations” and BOINC .
As befits an engineer, Sasha noted the shortcomings of the voluntary distributed computing systems existing on the market:
- The end user needs to install additional software on his computer, which slows down and limits the growth of the GRID network.
- And a conditional scientist who needs substantial power to solve a problem cannot simply be taken and “add distributed computing in the cloud to his code”. It is necessary to adapt to strict rules and, in fact, write a separate program.
Sasha decided to make a distributed computing system in which these problems are solved. On the one hand - to make a convenient java-library for distributed computing, which could be easily connected to the code of your application by writing a couple of lines of code. On the other hand, to make a script for a site that, when inserted into a page, turns “useless” users viewing photos of cats into useful users who, without harm to the speed of the browser, help their core i7 to detect cancer or predict the weather without being noticed. In order to build such a system, the student has studied dozens of new technologies for a year: from server-side Java to compiling C ++ code in javascript and the features of javascript in the browser.
The result was a working system. You can view the server code on Tomcat , the Java library to be connected , and the test application that picks up a password using the md5 hash in the cloud using the library. Not without experiments: experiments showed that already 13 browsers with javascript overtake one native C ++ application (and if Chrome users, browser calculations overtake C ++ already on five browsers).
Sasha successfully presented the project at the Baltic Science and Engineering Competition in St. Petersburg, took 1st place and won a trip to the States on Intel ISEF . There was just presented a stand from the beginning of the article:
(click to enlarge image)
After a trip to the States, Sasha enrolled at ITMO and literally from his first year joined the server development team of one of the famous St. Petersburg startups, where in his free time he helps build a “new Google / Facebook / SpaceX”.
This is not the only successful project. At the Baltic competition each year represent more than 150 projects on completely different topics, for example:
- Using an Android Phone as a HID Mouse
- Economical 3D scanner worth 3000 rubles
- Analogue RSA-cryptosystems in quadratic Euclidean rings
- The use of bilinear transformations for the implementation of the algorithms of "warping" and "morphing" in real time
- Back-In-Time Debugger: Linux debugger with the ability to restore the previous state of the program being debugged
Why support school IT research projects is so important?
Firstly, participation in a research project significantly helps a student to understand very well “who will I be when I grow up?” Before entering a university. The risks of entering the wrong university and minimizing a lot of time are not minimized.
Secondly, the school is a wonderful time when, as a rule, the burden of obligations has not yet fell on a young specialist.
Third, any new knowledge is learned in youth with greater efficiency.
You can ask: what's the research project? There are dozens of other competitions for both schoolchildren and students. Programming Olympiad, we win that year.
It is important to understand the key difference between the research project and the Olympiad. In the Olympiad, the task is to solve the problem that has been solved before. A research project is done a year and quite often solves a problem that no one has yet solved. Even on such a basic comparison, it is already becoming clear that a research project is an activity that is much more similar to the construction of the conditional “next Google”.
OK, how can I help?
1. To come in person to contests for schoolchildren and give feedback on IT projects
I repeat exactly what I started. For a young programmer who has created something from scratch for the first time in his life, it is VERY important to hear the assessment of his work from real IT specialists. The nearest such opportunity will be provided in St. Petersburg on February 3, 2016 at 14:00 ( registration ).
2. To attract your companies to participate in competitions for schoolchildren.
In addition to standard financial sponsorship options, companies can present schoolchildren with ideas for projects from their fields that they could work on.
3. Once a year to invest in support of competitions for IT-projects of schoolchildren
In the States, the largest such competition Intel ISEF is most actively sponsored (by surprise!) By the largest IT companies.
Unfortunately, not everything is so smooth here. In 2014, for example, the activity of business sponsors was rather low, and the competition had to raise funds through crowdfunding so that the event could remain free for schoolchildren. This year, the picture has not improved much: in connection with the well-known closure of the Dynasty Foundation , which previously supported the Baltic Competition , the competition once again requires the support of ordinary members of the IT community who have realized their responsibility for the common future, too. Habr's rules do not allow me to leave a direct link to the crowdfunding campaign, who really wants to help financially, he will find.
PS
When I tell my friends about the whole topic, I often hear the saddest comment: “Anyway, then these schoolchildren will leave the country. Everything is useless ... ”.
There are no illusions here: in the modern world, talented specialists often leave for those countries in which they can maximize their potential without unnecessary undue risks.
However, I am sure that in 10-15 years in our country a lot will change. A comfortable environment will be created for the creation and development of hundreds of “new Google / Facebook / SpaceX”. When this happens, I am sure that even those participants in the competition who decide to leave Russia will eventually return here to build such global leading IT companies.
They will definitely return if they remember how we once supported our initiatives at the competition. Support?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/275175/
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