Procedure for Holding the Contest

The “iRunner Challenge 2023 October powered by Huawei” programming contest (“the Contest”) is aimed at improving the education system in the field of programming and information and communication technologies, is designed to form and strengthen the traditions of programming contests. Teams of two participants which may consist of school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and other citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as persons permanently residing in these states can take part in the Contest.

1. This procedure (hereinafter referred to as “Procedure”) for holding the Contest is developed in accordance with the current legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

2. This procedure determines:

- goals and objectives of the Contest;

- the procedure for preparing and holding the Contest;

- composition of participants of the Contest;

- the summarizing procedure;

- sources of funding for the Contest.

3. The Contest is held in order to identify, support and develop gifted learners, students, gifted youth and specialists in the field of information and communication technologies, improve the quality of education, enhance the interaction between education, science, practice, and commercial organizations.

4. The objectives of the Contest are:

- stimulating and motivating persons involved in the field of information and communication technologies and programming to develop professional skills;

- improvement of the educational process, activation of independent research work;

- development of international cooperation;

- improvement of scientific and creative abilities of persons receiving education in the field of information and communication technologies and programming;

- increasing the interest of students in their future profession;

- identification of gifted persons from among the learners and students, support and encouragement of them, ensuring conditions for their further development.

5. The Contest is prepared and held by the Belarusian State University (“BSU”) on the basis of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science of BSU together with other interested state bodies and organizations.

6. General methodological, organizational, and informational support of the Contest is carried out by the Organizing Committee. The organization of the events of the Contest is regulated by this Procedure as well as by other documents issued by the Organizing Committee.

7. BSU composes the Organizing Committee which:

- carries out a set of measures for organizing and holding the Contest;

- sends out information messages and invitations to the Contest;

- accepts applications for participation in the Contest;

- composes and approves the jury of the Contest;

- approves the Rules of the Contest;

- approves the list of programming languages, integrated development environments, and software systems available to participants;

- ensures registration of participants, maintenance of the database of participants, preparation and maintenance of the necessary documentation of the Contest;

- awards winners of the Contest in agreement with the Customer (Organizer);

- analyzes, summarizes the results of the Contest, submits a report on holding the Contest within a month after its completion;

- prepares materials for mass media on preparing and holding the Contest and its results, posts information about the Contest on the official website of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science of BSU (https://fpmi.bsu.by/) in agreement with the Customer (Organizer).

8. The jury of the Contest (hereinafter referred to as “the Jury”) is composed by the Organizing Committee from among teachers and research fellows of BSU and representatives of interested state bodies and organizations. The Jury is headed by the Chairman of the Jury and representatives of the Customer (Organizer).

The Jury:

- compiles a set of competitive problems (hereinafter referred to as “Problems”) for the Contest. A Problem includes: the task statement, the author's solution, a set of (no more than 100) test cases to verify correctness of solutions, a checker program;

- develops and approves the criteria for solutions evaluation, prepares and loads sets of test cases into the automated testing system to test programs developed by participants of the Contest;

- performs testing solutions using the automated testing system;

- informs participants about testing results;

- summarizes the final results of the Contest;

- determines the winners of the Contest;

- makes proposals to the Organizing Committee on awarding the winners of the Contest;

- makes proposals on awarding individual participants of the Contest with special awards established by the Customer (Organizer).

The Jury has the exclusive and ultimate right to assess the correctness and acceptability of Problems solutions, to determine winners and to disqualify participants. The Jury considers issues arising as a result of unforeseen circumstances (power outage or local computer network outage, breakdown of computer equipment, and so on). Appeals of the summarized results of the Contest as well as revision of the Jury's decisions are not considered.

Prior to the start of the Contest, the Organizing Committee conducts pre-qualifying selection and registration of participants on the basis of submitted applications and proofs of identity.

9. Only persons who have successfully registered can participate in the Contest. School students, undergraduate and graduate students, and other citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as persons permanently residing in these states can take part in the Contest.

10. Participation in the Contest is team-based. Each team may consist only of two participants. One participant can only enter a single team. A participant who is not a member of any of the teams is ineligible to compete.

Participants develop solutions independently within their teams. The Contest agenda involves designing algorithms and programs in high-level programming languages. The list of allowed programming languages is approved by the Organizing Committee.

The Contest is held in a single round. This round allows teams to get acquainted with the Problems and to get access to the automated testing system. During the round, teams are invited to test their Problem solutions on test sets. After testing, a team scores points for each accepted test according to the Problem evaluation rules. Test cases can be open (on which programs are tested during the round) and closed (on which programs are tested after the end of the round).

The duration of the round is 3 to 8 days. Open test cases results can be considered for the possibility of testing on closed test cases.

11. By registering, the participant gives their consent to BSU and the Customer (Organizer) to process their personal data specified in the registration form and other personal data provided by the participant to BSU during the Contest.

The content, scope and purposes of personal data processing: collection, systematization, storage, modification, use, depersonalization, blocking, distribution, provision, deletion of personal data, including scanning, making copies on paper and electronic media of the documents provided (copies or images thereof). The processing of personal data can be carried out both with the use of automation tools and without the use of automation tools, if at the same time the search for personal data and (or) access to them according to certain criteria (lists, databases, logs, etc.) is provided.

The consent provides for and authorizes the processing of personal data with the possibility of cross-border transfer of personal data to other countries, including, but not limited to, countries that are parties to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Individuals with Automated Processing of Personal Data (Strasbourg, January 28, 1981), as well as to the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Singapore.

BSU and the Customer (Organizer) process the Candidate's personal data for the time necessary to achieve the purposes of personal data processing specified in this consent. Consent is given for a period of three years, unless otherwise specified by law.

Such processing of personal data is carried out in order for BSU to comply with the current legislation, to provide participants with access to the testing system, to send awards to the winners of the Contest, to fill, if necessary, relevant applications with the tax authorities and to pay taxes in relation to the winners of the Contest, to post information, including names, photos, and biographies of participants and winners of the Contest, on the website of BSU, to provide feedback to participants, and to provide information, mailing lists, and job offers by the specified email address. The consent is granted for a period of 3 (three) years.

The winners confirm that in case of being awarded, information about such a fact, as well as its images (photos), surname, first name, patronymic, and city of residence, interviews can be published (including in the mass media and advertising materials of the Customer (Organizer)). The winners grant the Customer (Organizer) a gratuitous right to use their images (photos), interviews or other materials about them related to their participation in the Contest for an unlimited period and without payment of any additional remuneration.

12. During the Contest, a participant has the right to:

- ask questions to the Jury on Problems statements via the testing system.

13. A participant of the Contest is obliged to:

- comply with this procedure for holding the Contest.

14. A participant of the Contest may be excluded or disqualified from participation in the Contest for:

- violation of the terms of this Procedure;

- illegal interference in the operation of the automated testing system and disruption of its performance;

- other violations during the Contest, which are confirmed by a court verdict that has entered into force or by a decision of the body whose competence includes the imposition of an administrative penalty.

15. The Organizing Committee, together with the Jury, summarizes the final results of the Contest.

16. The winners of the Contest are determined by the Jury using the automated testing system based on the results of testing Problems solutions of the Contest developed by all participants.

17. The determining criterion is the number of points scored by the participant according to the rules of the Contest. Each test case is a set of input and output data. Each program is run as many times as there are test cases in the set, both the correctness of the generated results and the program running time on each individual test are recorded. If the program running time exceeds the limit specified in the statement, the test case is not counted. The team with the highest overall points wins.

18. The decision on awarding the winners of the Contest is made in agreement with the Organizing Committee and the Customer (Organizer).

19. Twenty-one teams will receive awards in accordance with their places. If some places from 1st to 21st are shared by two or more teams, the Jury has the right to rank the teams according to additional criteria at the discretion of the Jury.

The team with the maximum number of points ranked 1st will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 3,000 (three thousand) United States dollars.

Two teams ranked from 2nd to 3rd will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 2,000 (two thousand) United States dollars.

Three teams ranked from 4th to 6th will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 1,000 (one thousand) United States dollars.

Four teams ranked from 7th to 10th will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 800 (eight hundred) United States dollars.

Five teams ranked from 11th to 15th will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 500 (five hundred) United States dollars.

Six teams ranked from 16th to 21st will receive an award in the amount of the equivalent of 250 (two hundred and fifty) United States dollars.

The amount of the award does not include the amount of applicable taxes, fees and other mandatory payments and deductions to the budget, bank commissions and other mandatory payments, and expenses when transferring the amount of the award in a non-cash manner using the bank details provided by participants.

The award is paid in Russian rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the last day of the Contest. The award is divided equally between the team members.

The award cannot be paid in cash, to the bank account of a third party (except in the case of payment of the award to a minor participant to the bank account of their legal representative) or in other equivalent at the request of the participant.

The payment of the award is made by the Customer (Organizer) or a legal entity authorized by them.

20. The events of the Contest are funded from sources not prohibited by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

21. Own funds of BSU, other interested state bodies and other organizations of the Republic of Belarus can also be involved in funding the events of the Contest with their consent.

22. BSU provides the necessary premises, classrooms, laboratories, computer and other equipment for the needs of the Contest.

23. By participating in the Contest, each participant agrees that, if necessary, they undertake to provide written evidence that all and any solutions, results, and materials, in whole or in part, are the original work of the participant and, therefore, are original for the Contest (i. e. have not been developed in any material form/format prior to the Contest) and do not violate any laws, regulations or intellectual property rights (including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, industrial property rights, personal or non-property rights) or any other laws, regulations or the rights of any country, individual and/or legal entity.