PESHAWAR: Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology has successfully organized a three-day International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) On-Site Regional Asia, said a press release issued on Friday.

The organizers said that ICPC is a multi-tier programming contest, which includes multi-provincial, regional and world finals. Due to COVID-19, only 22 shortlisted teams competed in the regional contest after an online preliminary contest, which was held earlier online in February. Students of different universities and colleges from across the country, especially Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, participated in the competition.

The gold medalist team will be further participating in the World Finals which is scheduled to be held in Moscow from October 1 to October 6, 2021. Nabeel Hussain, Hamza Zaheer and Syed Muhammad Ali of Fast-NUCES Lahore won the gold medals and students of Habib University Karachi stood second and third position was got to students of Fast University Karachi.

Chief Guest was Dr Khalid Khan, Director-General of Directorate of Science and Technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who distributed gold medals and gave away certificates to the winning teams. He said that students from across the country should be motivated to participate in the international contests so that they are ready to win such competitions.

Sardar Aminullah Khan, Acting Rector, GIK Institute said that information technology is changing the rules of competition in various ways, and the competition like this was a great leap forward and everyone involved in it need special appreciation particularly the youth who are engaged in IT based competition from the platform or ICPC and GIK.

Special Guest, Dr Syed Ali Abbas Hasani, Director Pakistan Software Export board said that taking initiative, conducting result- oriented research and work for innovation would enable us to move forward and acquire a unique place in comity of nations.