The 14th national final of the Syrian Collegiate Programming Contest SCPC 24 has started at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, as there have been 65 teams from the public and private universities and the Syrian Virtual University. The contest has begun with popping colored balloons. President of Al-Baath University, Prof. Abdul Basit Al Khatib, has stressed the importance of this event in providing added values to the Syrian universities, demonstrating the level of the young cadres and their ability to compete in the regional and international scientific contests, and creating job opportunities. Prof. Al Khatib has wished Syrian programmers success in the international contests to raise the name of Syria high up the world, especially Al-Baath University teams who have previously reached record levels and ranked first in the Syrian programming contests in 2019 and 2022. The national programming contest has been held in the presence of a scientific committee of the regional contest administration from the Arab Republic of Egypt. Prof. Fadi Murshid has indicated that the contest administration organizes a group of qualifying contest and that the national contest is the most important one as it includes the elite of programmers in Syrian universities. he has also referred that the center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering has been equipped with computers and all requirements of the contest which lasts for 5 hours and ends with announcing the results in the closing ceremony, pointing that each team consists of three students who compete to solve the largest number of questions in the shortest possible time with the least number of attempts. He has also noted that he team must find the appropriate algorithm and write it in one of the programming languages, adding that the question is corrected automatically under the supervision of a group of judges. The executive director of the contest in the Arab countries and Africa, Eng. Muhammad Fouad, and the deputy executive director of the international contest, praised the level of the Syrian programming teams and the excellent organization of the contest, as Syria is considered one of the most important centers of the contest in the Arab world . The contestants have been tested in preparation for the official contest which takes place at Al-Baath University. The event was attended by the secretary of B.A.S.P branch at the university, Prof. Fayeq Shadood, Damascus university vice-president for scientific research and postgraduate studdies, Prof. Ghaith Warqouzaq, and the coordinators of the universities participating in the contest.
