Savvy students and staff at Robert Gordon University (RGU) are gearing up to take part in a major programming event held by Google.
The Google Hash Code event will see teams from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa compete to create solutions to real world engineering problems posed by the technology company.
RGU has registered as a hub where participating teams of either students or professionals can gather to compete in the online qualifying round on February 11 where they will be presented with a problem and given four hours before to write a program that generates a solution.
Teams can submit as many solutions as they like using an online judging system and a live scoreboard will let them know how they stack up against the competition, with a range of prizes from Google up for grabs.
Working with the School of Computing Science and Digital Media, third year computing student Corrie Green (19) has helped lead the university’s involvement in the event and while a handful of teams have signed up there is still plenty of space for others to register.
“I haven't participated in Google Hash Code before, but the chance to tackle problems rapidly in a team is great fun and a good opportunity to hone in skills from all science related fields,” he said.
“I have done many events similar to these in the past and it’s a fantastic opportunity to discuss development and collaborate with like-minded people. It's one of the largest digital events in the world, and likely to be a frequent event on my calendar.
“The event tests how quickly you can analyse and calculate a solution to a problem. They are not easy, and it’s entirely possible that teams won’t get passed the first question, but the event is only a few hours and a chance to tackle real world problems faced by Google engineers.”
Computing Science Course Leader, Dr John Isaacs, added: “We are planning a number of events like this at the School of Computing Science and Digital Media, including hackathons and development challenges, which allow our students to work as part of a team on real world problems.
“The landscape of computer science is changing and becoming a much more creative environment - modern developers need to think on their feet and not simply churn out the same lines of code again and again. These are exactly the skills we teach our students and these events give them the opportunity to actively put them to the test.”
At the end of the online qualifying round, the judging panel will establish two rankings based on the score of the best solution submitted by each team: one for students and one for professionals.
The best teams in each ranking will then be invited to take part in the final round.
To take part in the event, visit www.hashcode.withgoogle.com and select RGU from the list of participating hubs by 6pm on February 9.