Challenge 24 - international programming competition

The 9th International 24-hour Programming Competition called ‘Challenge 24’ was held at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) on May 2 and 3, 2009. Magyar Telekom was diamond sponsor of the problem-solving contest organized by the Hungarian Association of Electric and IT Engineering Students.

This year the competitors were given numerous complex problems to solve and they needed not only fast and precise coding skills, but also knowledge of network technology, artificial intelligence, algorithm theory and image recognition. One of the tasks in the finals was to read a music score from a screen with the help of a camera and then manipulate a robot to play the music on a guitar. In another complex task the students were asked to develop artificial intelligence for a robot placed on a terrain table, and to steer the robot through an obstacle field with the help of two cameras. As in the previous years, the Swedish and the Polish teams dominated the problem-solving competition and in the end a Swedish student team finished first. The best Hungarian teams were placed 5th and 6th.

Magyar Telekom has been a committed supporter of Hungarian technical higher education for years, and as diamond sponsor of the Challenge 24 programming competition organized by BME, it placed great importance on helping talented young IT students match their abilities in an international field. As the Hungary’s leading infocommunications service provider, Magyar Telekom also takes advantage of these events to get to know high-performing technology students close to graduation as well as young professionals already active in a technology/IT field, and to recruit the best ones to join its staff.

Details, pictures and the full text of the problems, as well as the blog of the competition are available on the www.challenge24.org website