From March 17-18, 2023, in Da Nang city, The Fourth Informatics Olympiad in the Central and Central Highlands (OLP) was held by the Vietnam – Korea University of Information and Communication Technology (VKU), the University of Da Nang, in collaboration with the Da Nang Informatics Association, the Department of Education and Training of Da Nang City and Le Quy Don Specialized High School, Da Nang under the professional care of the Vietnam Informatics Association, ICPC Vietnam.

 Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Huynh Cong Phap – Rector of VKU and Mr. Nguyen Long – Vice Chairman, General Secretary of Vietnam Informatics Association, Director of ICPC Vietnam awarded the trophy to 3 Gold medal contestants in the Super Cup Group.

Attending the event, the Organizing Committee includes:

Head of the Contest Organizing Committee: Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Huynh Cong Phap – Rector of Vietnam-Korea University of Information and Communication Technology (VKU).

Co-Heads of the Contest Organizing Committee: Mr. Nguyen Long – Vice Chairman, cum General Secretary of Vietnam Informatics Association, Director of ICPC Vietnam; Teacher Le Thi Bich Thuan – Director of Danang Department of Education and Training; MA. Le Vinh – Rector of Le Quy Don Specialized High School, Da Nang.

The Deputy Head of the Contest Organizing Committee: Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Nguyen Thanh Binh – Chairman of VKU Council; Dr. Tran The Son – Vice Rector of VKU, Mr. Mai Tan Linh – Deputy Director of Department of Education and Training.

Especially attended by: Representatives of the University of Danang, departments, enterprises and with teachers who are Leaders, mentors and more than 500 secondary and high school students in the Central – Central Highlands region and many provinces/cities in the country to attend the contest directly at VKU and more than 300 candidates participate online.

Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Huynh Cong Phap – Rector of VKU – Head of Organizing Committee at opening speech

Speaking at OLP Informatics, Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Huynh Cong Phap – Head of the Organizing Committee was pleased and touched by the strong development of the contest, the large participation of high school candidates across the country with impressive numbers maintained and developed over the years such as: in 2020, there are 217 students/19 schools/19 provinces and cities; in 2021, there are 827 students/50 schools/36 provinces and cities; in 2022, there are 1,087 students/201 schools/40 provinces and cities and in 2023, there are 2,019 students/281 schools/63 provinces and cities. These numbers have once again affirmed the prestige, quality and reliability of OLP Informatics and especially since this year, OLP Informatics has gained more prestige and reliability by VKU has signed a cooperation agreement with ICPC Vietnam, Vietnam Informatics Association to ensure the expertise, security and transparency of exam questions and results.

Representing Vietnam Informatics Association, ICPC Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Long highly appreciated VKUs role in the organization process

On behalf of Vietnam Informatics Association, ICPC Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Long highly appreciated the roles and responsibilities of the organizers and affirmed that OLP Informatics has affirmed the quality and prestige to reach the stature and standards of national and international exams.

Mrs. Le Thi Bich Thuan – Director of Department of Education and Training – Co-head of Organizing Committee highly appreciated the capacity of students participating in the Olympiad competition

The representative of the Da Nang education department, Mrs. Le Thi Bich Thuan – Director of Department of Education and Training – Co-Head of the Organizing Committee appreciated the efforts and tireless striving for the passion of computer science of the students, so that today they have achieved sweet results with very encouraging achievements.

Le Vinh – Rector of Le Quy Don Specialized High School, Da Nang – Co-Director of the Organizing Committee evaluated the final report of 4 times organizing Olympic competition.

  On behalf of the organizing committee, MA. Le Vinh – Rector of Le Quy Don Specialized High School, Da Nang – Co-Head of the Organizing Committee for the final contest assessment said: After 4 times organized, it can be said that OLP Informatics has constantly innovated, creative, humane and high professional. This years contest (2023) has recorded many new factors from the teams participating for the first time and achieving many high achievements. This is a good sign that provinces and cities in the region and across the country have paid attention to the development of Informatics in the school, contributing to implement the mission of improving the quality of IT human resources for the country, serving to the construction and development of the country in the industrial 4.0 era and international integration.

The fourth OLP Informatics was held through 2 rounds, the preliminary is in the form of online competition (online) on March 4, 2023 with more than 2,000 students from 281 secondary and high schools from 63 provinces/cities nationwide participating in 03 Groups: Super Cup Group (For students on the team who participate in the National Excellent Informatics Student Contest); specialist Group (for specialized/selected Informatics students in specialized high schools) and Semi-specialist Group(for the remaining).

 With the cooperation of the prestigious experts of the Vietnam Informatics Association, ICPC Vietnam and VKU, the qualifying questions have been built in a serious, quality, highly classified manner and ensure accurate and fair results. Based on the results of the tests, the Organizing Committee and the Judging Committee selected 893 best contestants who will attend the grand finale, including 97 Super Cup Group contestants, 337 Specialist Group contestants and 459 Semi-Specialist Group contestants. The grand final took place attractively and successfully on the afternoon of March 17, 2023 with 528 contestants participating directly (onsite) and 353 contestants participating online.

The Olympic Informatics in the Central – Central Highlands is for students who love information technology across the country, an attractive and useful playground, promoting passion for learning and creativity, contributing to the supply of high human resources in the future.

 All exam questions are of high quality, reliability, confidentiality and are given by the Board of Proposals consisting of reputable experts nominated by the Vietnam Informatics Association and ICPC Vietnam. Leading the work is Mr. Nguyen Long, Vice President and General Secretary of Vietnam Informatics Association, Director of ICPC Vietnam. In charge of expertise is Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Do Phan Thuan (Hanoi University of Science and Technology) and Dr. Do Duc Dong (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and the members of the Committee include Mr. Pham Van Hanh, International Olympic Gold Medal of Informatics in 2015, Golden Globe Science and Technology Award in 2017, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thuan, a member of the Vietnamese team participating in the Asian Informatics Olympiad in 2021.

Expertise’ speaking, Assoc. Prof. Ph.D Do Phan Thuan – Head of the Jury commented: this years exam was put into regulation by the Organizing Committee with international-level problems including 3 super cup groups, specialist and semi- specialist with increasing difficulty levels, in order to improve the level of access to international standards. Thereby, it can be seen that the quality of the exam has been raised to a new level; the candidates have shown very good bravery and confidence in choosing reasonable tactics to save the highest scores.

Summing up the 4th OLP Informatics, the Organizing Committee awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze medals and Consolation prizes to the Groups including:

• Super Cup Group: 3 Gold; 6 Silver, 10 Bronze and 6 Consolation prizes.
• Specialist Group: 17 gold, 35 silvers, 54 bronze and 27 consolation prizes.
• Semi-specialist Group: 31 golds, 63 silver; 89 bronze and 101 consolation prizes.

In addition, high-achieving students and teams receive high value rewards, such as:

+ First Prize: Students have the highest ranking (ranking 1) in each Group: 03Prizes for 3 Groups and worth 7,000,000 VND/01 prize;

+ Second Prize: Students with the second highest rank (ranking 2) in each Group: 03Prize for 3 Group and worth 4,000,000 VND/01 prize;

+ Third Prize: Students with the third highest ranking (ranking 3) in each Group: 03Prize for 3 Group and worth 2,000,000 VND/01 prize;

+ Consolation Prizes (30 Prizes for 3 Groups and worth 1,000,000 VND/01 prize): For the next 10 students with high scores (from ranking 4 to ranking 13) of each exam group.

Besides, there are 04 prizes for delegations with the largest number of finalists and the highest percentage of winners, specifically: 01 first prize for the whole delegation (prize value of 4 million VND) is Le Quy Don Specialized High School, Da Nang; the second prize for the whole delegation (prize value of 3 million VND) is Nguyen Du Specialized High School, Dak Lak; 02 third prizes for the whole delegation (prize value of 2 million VND per prize) are Hanoi Education Specialized High School and Trung Vuong Secondary School, Da Nang.

The total value of prizes awarded to high-achieving students and collectives is 100,000,000 VND.In addition, students who win the First, Second, Third and Consolation prizes are given priority for direct admission to the University as well as rêcive other benefits according to the direct admission regulations of Vietnam-Korea University of Information and Communication Technology – the University of Da Nang (https://vku.udn.vn and http://tuyensinh.vku.udn.vn/) and other universities with own admission regulations.On the other hand, in order to create the most favorable conditions for students in provinces/cities outside Da Nang to attend the final round, the Organizing Committee has created favorable conditions and maximum support for all candidates, parents and teachers during the exam days.4th OLP Informatics – 2023 marked a great development with continuous efforts to innovate, create, and improve quality and reputation to reach the stature of national and international exams. With the role and responsibility of the leading and unique public university in the Central – Central Highlands, VKU commits to continue its efforts with the joint efforts of your agencies and organizations to actualize the CENTRAL REGION DREAM, contributing to the training and provide high-quality human resources in information technology, communication and digital economy for the country and international integration.