Computer Boffins score with Python
Computer software billionaire Mark Shuttleworth encourages young programmers to use Python and to make their passion their career – like he did.
At the annual Computer Olympiad Awards function nine learners walked away with a total of R147,000 in prize money.
The Computer Olympiad is a project of the Computer Society of South Africa, sponsored by Standard Bank and supported by the Shuttleworth Foundation and the University of Cape Town. The Olympiad identifies, encourages and rewards computer programming aptitude. This year there were 32, 000 entries in the First Round and more than 3,500 in the Second Round. Twenty-two of the Second Round winners were brought to the University of Cape Town to compete for the top honours last weekend.
Peter Waker, manager of the South African Computer Olympiad praises South African schools for taking part. “The Olympiad is an excellent way of finding which learners have an aptitude for IT and which not. This explains the phenomenal growth in participation. Teachers will go the extra mile to help learners make career choices.”
The Shuttleworth Foundation added extra incentive to the 2006 and 2007 Olympiads by making R100 000 per year available as prize money for students using Python. Most of the winners this year took up the challenge and used Python.
Python is an open source programming language favoured by many IT enthusiasts for its ease of use. As with all open source software the source code is available to the IT community, which contributes to the development and improvement of the language. Python can be downloaded free of charge from www.python.org and has also been supplied on CD to all participating schools.
The language is not named after the snake, but after the “Monty Python and the Flying Circus” series which was aired in the UK in the 1970’s and which has gathered a cult following since. It is however a serious language. Many major websites have been built using it. Software billionaire and first African in space, Mark Shuttleworth, used it to develop the software that made him one of South Africa’s richest men. As part of his drive to improve education in South Africa, Shuttleworth is encouraging others to use the language that he found so useful.
Donald Cook, a lecturer at UCT who heads the team that set the questions commented: “This year’s problems were extremely difficult. Only one participant managed to solve all six problems. However, the general performance indicates that we have much latent talent in South Africa.”
Ralf Kistner, a Grade 12 learner at Paul Roos Gymnasium was awarded the Standard Bank trophy for the highest score in the Final Round. In addition to the trophy, R6,000 for himself and R5,000 for his school, he also won R30,000 for being the highest scoring Python user in the competition. Ralf is a regular participant in Mathematics Olympiads; having represented South Africa at the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad in 2004 and at the International Olympiad in Mathematics in 2005 and 2006. He plans to start studies for a BSc in Maths and Computer Science in 2007.
Silver Awards were handed to Dirk Coetzee of Stellenbosch High School, Western Cape, and Joshua Yudaken from King David High in Linksfield, Johannesburg. Each of these students received R20,000 as second prizes in the Python Division of the competition. They also received R4,000 each and R3,000 for their individual schools.
A Bronze Award and a R10,000 Python Prize was won by Mark Danoher of Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth.
Charles Bradshaw and Saadiq Moolla, both of Rondebosch Boys’ High School walked off with the other two Bronze Awards, R2,000 each and R4,000 for their school.
Allan Maclaurin of Penryn College in Nelspruit, David Naylor of St David’s Marist, Johannesburg, and Herman Schaaf of Stellenberg High School, Durbanville each received R10,000 for their high scores in using Python.
The awards were handed out by Moira de Roche, President of the Computer Society of S.A., Karien Bezuidenhout of The Shuttleworth Foundation and Mike Murphy of Standard Bank.
Six award winners of this year’s Computer Olympiad will receive extra training during the first half of 2007. Four of them will then be selected to make up the South African team at the International Olympiad in Informatics in Croatia in 2007.
