Arab American University announced the beginning of the activities of IEEEXtreme Programming Competition as around 60 students from the Faculty of Engineering and IT participated in the 24-hours competition.
The beginning of the global IEEEXtreme Programming Competition
Dr. Hazim Khanfar – the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology started the activities by welcoming the audience and the participants of this competition and thanked everyone worked to prepare this activity from AAUP administration and staff, foothill Company and Hassib Sabbagh IT Center for Excellence.
Dr. Khanfar said: “AAUP and the Faculty of Engineering and IT gives a great attention to sponsor IEEEXtreme and the similar activities, for its great positive impact on students and graduates of the Faculty and they will gain new skills and academic education through such activities”.
He added: “The Faculty will always facilitate the participation to students and will always support them to be part of such activities locally and internationally. We are working on forming a committee in our Faculty from faculty members, and research and teaching assistances to follow up students and qualify them to be part of the competition. The committee will also work to organize internal competitions and will honor winner and will select students to represent the university in the future competitions”.
Dr. Sami Awad- the Competition Supervisor and a lecture in the Faculty of Engineering and IT said that he is proud that AAUP is participating in this competition and competes against international universities. He added that the Faculty is strengthening its relations with the private sector aiming to qualify students to the labor market and said that the companies need programmers and in AAUP we graduate qualified engineers and programmers who will take responsibility in joining the activities of this competition, and communicate and train in the private companies and be successful in the labor market.
Eng. Anas Zakarneh- Foothill representative said that the company and under collaboration with Hassib Sabbagh had trained and qualified students to participate in the international competition, and said that he is one of AAUP graduates class of 2015 and working in the company currently and that he has a part in training students. He ensured that engineers need to put some effort, whether they are still studying or while training in companies in order to reach success, and said that the goal is not to win, but to benefit from others experiences.
Mr. Fadi Jumaa- the Public Relations Manager in AAUP expressed how proud he is that AAUP is participating in this international competition and said that when the university started in 2000, it was only one building and few students, now it is a university that all Palestinians are proud of and has print globally, and he wished AAUP team the best in the competition.
Mr. Sa’ed Hanani- the Head of IEEEXtreme said that he is proud that AAUP has participated in the competition that other international universities are competing in, and then talked a little about the establishment of the association as it is an international organization that organizes some activities where engineers and students in the faculties of Engineering from international and Arab universities participate in as its main goal is to develop engineers.
In her speech, Roaa BaniOdeh- Xtreme Ambassador for this year explained that almost 60 students from the Faculty of Engineering and IT are participating in this competition divided into 15 teams, each team of 3 members. She said that almost 420 thousand members from 160 countries around the world are participating in this competition that aims to develop the capabilities of engineers especially computer engineers.
She clarified that the competition will last for 24 continuous hours, in each hour, there will be new questions distributed on each participated team about the mechanism of solving the programming problems. At the end of the competition, 3 winning teams will be honored on the world level, and the first 100 teams will be honored with special gifts and their names will be published on the competition’s website.
She added that participated students were trained by Foothill Company and by Hassib Sabbagh Center in AAUP and thanked the University for providing the appropriate environment for learning.
Many activities were organized during the ceremony of launching the intentional competition.
