Pointwest Hosts 2017 Informatics Olympiad Finals

Mike Togle
March 10, 2017

Pointwest played host to the battle between thirty of the brightest young minds of the country with the holding of the 2017 finals of the National Olympiad for Informatics (NOI) at the company’s UP-AyalaLand Technohub facility on 18-19 Feb. 2017.

The NOI finals determines the top ten contestants that may represent the Philippines at the International Olympiad for Informatics (IOI) that will be held in Tehran, Iran.

The two-day event featured eight ingeniously-written problems – four for each day/round – that challenged both the mathematical and programming skills of the participants. You can read more about the finals here.

The entire selection process for forming the Philippine Delegation is under the purview of NOI.Ph. It organizes all competitions from the regional eliminations that start in January every year all the way to the finals and the training of the team to compete in the IOI. The group, made up of volunteers, is the officially-recognized organizer of the Informatics Olympiads here.

Collage of Photos from NOI Finals (Photo credits: NOI.ph)

Pointwest leaders, headed by its President and CEO Ma. Cristina “Beng” Coronel, met with representatives of NOI.Ph and two-time IOI Bronze medalist Robin Yu on 10 September 2016 to discuss how and where Pointwest can provide more assistance. The company was one of the sponsors of the 2016 delegation to the IOI of that year.

Ms. Coronel, hearing no venue had yet been selected by NOI.Ph, offered its UP-AyalaLand Technohub facility as the venue for the 2017 finals, which was held in two of the large activity rooms of the company’s office. Pointwest also provided internet access, computers and other infrastructure support during the event.

During the commencement activities of the event, Veck Basinang, Pointwest’s Chief Technical Officer, gave a short talk on the real world importance of what the contestants are doing. She spoke about developments in the industry that made use of the math and programming disciplines the contestants were using in the contest, particularly in the emerging field of Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Sherwin Pelayo, head of Pointwest Labs and OIC of the NOI in Pointwest, spoke about how this was part of Pointwest’s advocacy and encouraged the participants to keep going with their passion.

“If you choose to be in this field for the long term, always think about other people, and design for the good of the many, think about the good your code can do. Technology by itself isn’t good or bad; we are the ones who give morality to it.”Sherwin Pelayo, Head of Pointwest Labs

_____

Carry on a conversation with us through the comments below, or you can send a message or inquiry about our services for several industries.

Founded in 2003 by pioneers of the Philippine Global Sourcing industry, Pointwest creates value for its list of satisfied clients — including top Fortune 100 and local companies — with world-class IT and BPM services backed by international-standards methodologies and innovative practices.