Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
The hackathon “Church’s Thesis” was held for the first time at Novosibirsk State University. It is aimed at everyone interested in mathematical logic and its application in information technology. Both students of all courses of the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) and the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (MMF) of NSU, as well as schoolchildren, took part in the pilot competition. In total, more than 20 teams registered.
Welcoming remarks were given by Gulnara Erkinovna Yakhyaeva, Associate Professor of the Department of General Computer Science at the NSU Institute of Information Technologies, Lecturer of the course “Logical Foundations of Programming”, and Alexander Aleksandrovich Vlasov, Head of the Laboratory of Software Development and Systems on a Chip, Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Systems at the NSU Institute of Information Technologies. They shared modern challenges faced by specialists in the field of logic and programming.
The hackathon consisted of two stages: a theoretical one, which gave participants the opportunity to explore how logic is applied in everyday life; and a practical one, during which the guys solved applied problems: from program verification to optimizing compiler algorithms. The competition was high, and all teams demonstrated a high level of preparation.
Anton Chumak, the hackathon organizer, “Mathematical Logic Lover,” a 3rd-year student at the NSU Faculty of Information Technology, told us how the idea of holding the hackathon came about:
— When I was a first-year student, I heard my classmates complaining, “Why do we need mathematical logic?” or “Matlog is a subject that is disconnected from the rest of mathematics and any real-world problems.” In my second year, I taught additional classes on this subject and noticed that the general mood of first-year students was about the same. “An incomprehensible and useless subject,” some of them thought. And although the course in mathematical logic and the theory of algorithms is more abstract than linal or matan, it also has many practical applications, especially in IT. These areas include parsers, program verification, knowledge bases, artificial intelligence, expert systems, optimizing compilers, and much more. The problem is that first-year students do not see these applications when they need to study the proof of a model existence theorem (METH), and not many are motivated to complete the course well. Therefore, it seemed to me the right decision to introduce the students to problems that appear in leading companies and require knowledge of mathematical logic to solve. I hope this will change their attitude towards the course and the discipline in general.
As the organizers note, the main difficulty in preparing the hackathon was in compiling the tasks. Since the competition format is limited to one day, a team, even one consisting of three people, has little time to solve a complex problem. At the same time, it was important to show the versatility of applications, so it was necessary to offer the teams as many different tasks as possible. The final list included theoretical and practical tasks. Theoretical tasks were devoted to the application of mathematical logic in the daily life of a programmer. In the practical round, teams were asked to write their own Turing machine, an optimization algorithm for a compiler, specifications for verifying algorithms in distributed systems, and even their own knowledge base.
— I am pleased to note that almost all tasks were solved by at least one team! — added Anton Chumak.
The finale was a ceremonial awarding of the best teams. The winners received memorable prizes thanks to the support of partners: the organizers expressed special gratitude to the Dean’s Office of the NSU FIT, the NSU Department of Youth Policy and Educational Work, as well as the partner companies of the Faculty of Information Technology – Postgres Professional, YADRO, Ledas and the School of Data Analysis – for their contribution to the organization and holding of the hackathon.
The competition had 2 categories: for schoolchildren and first-year students, as well as a general category. There were 3 winning teams in each category.
Bulat Nazarov, captain of the winning team “Barebushki”, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Information Technology of NSU, shared his impressions:
— Yes, we are so great — we won the hackathon! To be honest, we didn’t expect to perform so well, but we are very happy that we ended up taking 1st place. We were a little nervous at the start — we solved just enough in the theoretical part to not lose face. But then the practical part began, and everything went more fun: the first were tasks in C, then we switched to TLA (coding experience in this language: it was as if aliens were being taught human language, but in the end it worked). But the knowledge base is our pride! We beat everyone there in points. Our data search worked so clearly that even we ourselves are proud of it. It was especially nice to see how our solutions received a high rating. Many thanks to Anton for the recommendation, we are sincerely glad to have the opportunity to share our experience.
Denis Yeldov, a first-year student at the Faculty of Information Technology and a member of the winning team “Hotdog Master” in the first-year competition, spoke about how the hackathon went:
— At the first, theoretical stage, it was actually possible to solve almost all the tasks if we divided them between the team members, which is what we did. So it wasn’t that difficult. In the second round, there were practical tasks, some of which were created by FIT students, and some by leading IT companies. We again divided the tasks among the team, but when something didn’t work out, we asked each other for help. It was fun, the atmosphere was not tense. However, we were constantly encouraged to do the tasks faster, since the rating was displayed on the screen, which was updated online. The tasks were of medium difficulty, as well as complex, some of them had to be written in a completely new programming language, which was one of the main problems.
Both the organizers and the participants noted that the competitions had a friendly atmosphere. In addition to the tournament itself, there were breaks during which the teams communicated in an informal setting.
— I am extremely glad that students from the FIT and MMF, as well as schoolchildren, took part. The atmosphere at the competition was very kind and homely. I think that is how it should be when people who are close in spirit gather. I hope that next year even more participants and partners will join us, — Anton Chumak summed up.
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