Twenty-two students from Saint Petersburg State University and other institutions that specialize in IT training took part in the event representing Russia. Thirty three high school and university students represented Japan.
Both the Japan and Russia produce some of the top programmers in the entire world. For example, a team from Saint Petersburg State University won the ACM-ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2016. A team from the University of Tokyo took third place in the contest.
The participants of the Japanese-Russian Computer Programming Contest were given five problems to solve in two hours. The task was prepared by Japanese social media and mobile marketing company AdCoder.
At the end of the competition, Ken Sugimori, a post-graduate student from the University of Tokyo, won first place.
Alexander Golovanov, a student from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, took the third in the overall standings and placed highest among the Russian participants.
In an interview with Sputnik Japan, Golovanov said that the contest was an interesting and valuable experience for him. He added that life in Japan differs greatly from Russian and positively surprised him.
“I have not decided yet what I am going do when a graduate, but if a get a job proposal from a Japanese company I will definitely consider the possibility after this visit to the country,” he said.
These type of contests are aimed not only at identifying the most talented students, but also help companies find enterprising graduates. It’s a common practice for leading Japanese companies to recruit their future employees before they leave school.
Yusuke Otsubo, a managing partner of UMJ Russia Fund, the first Japanese venture capital institution to invest in Russian technology companies, told Sputnik the Japanese-Russian Youth Exchange Center does more than just organize trips to Russia.
“We aim to establish Japanese-Russian contacts in those spheres where they are not flourishing yet, but might contribute to the development of business ties between our countries in the future. To that end, we have organized this contest,” he said.
He added that the second Japanese-Russian Computer Programming Contest is to be held in Russia.
During their stay in Japan, Russian students visited Japanese IT companies and manufactures. The organizers of the contest believe that informal communication between young specialists from both countries can ramp up Japanese-Russian collaboration in the sphere of information technology.
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