Today, on November 30, the opening ceremony of the Volga-IT'23 International Digital Olympiad was held in the Congress Hall named after T.L. Stenina ("Tarelka"). The participants were addressed by the rector of UlSTU Nadezhda Yarushkina, the Minister of Digital Development of the Ulyanovsk region Oleg Yagfarov and representatives of regional IT companies.

"Students are always in a hurry to start working. Sometimes it turns out that their work activity interferes with their studies. Therefore, the idea of holding an Olympiad arose, in which the tasks are formulated by the employers themselves - IT companies. The peculiarity of Volga-IT is that the guys do not just perform a training exercise, but solve a practical problem that they will be able to meet while working. This is a very useful experience for students" - said the rector of UlSTU Nadezhda Yarushkina.

This year, young IT specialists fr om 78 regions of Russia and 20 countries of the world are testing their knowledge and strength in the Olympiad. About a hundred people take part in the final stage.

"The Olympiad is a chance for me to get real experience in solving interesting problems. I participate in the discipline "Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis". The tasks are very practical, it is quite clear how their solution can be applied in reality. Reaching the final is already a very good result. I will try to complete the competitive tasks as best as possible in order to get closer to victory" -  Anton Babkin, a student of Dubna State University from the Moscow Region, shared his impressions.

According to Denis Efremov, director of the scientific and educational center "Boiling Point of UlSTU", deputy chairman of the organizing committee of the Volga-IT International Digital Olympiad, the difficulty of holding the Olympiad this year was to double the number of participants. Last year, more than three thousand students competed in the Olympiad, this year the number of participants exceeded 6,500 people.

"We have not had such cases wh ere the finalists completed absolutely all the tasks. This shows future IT specialists what awaits them in the labor market. By participating in the Olympiad, the guys check their readiness for real work. This is not an academic Olympiad, built not according to manuals, but according to the real tasks of IT companies. I mean not only programming, but also administration, information security, design, artificial intelligence, accounting systems – everything related to production on a computer. The Olympiad is also unique because it unites the efforts of a large number of IT companies, universities, regional and federal authorities. Common interests unite here, and a great result is created through joint efforts" -  Denis Efremov noted.

Tomorrow, at the closing ceremony, the organizers will announce the names of the winners and prize-winners of the digital Olympiad.