Techarena Training Camp in Sports Programming Held at HSE University
The HSE University Faculty of Computer Science has hosted the third Techarena Challenge competition and the HSE Techarena Training Camp. More than 130 teams from Russian and international universities took part, competing to solve an optimisation problem. The on-site round, which was scored individually, lasted four hours.
After the competition, the participants were invited to an awards ceremony and celebratory dinner.
The overall winner of the Techarena Challenge was Anton Stepanov, a third-year student of the Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics and Information Science at the FCS. First-degree honours were also awarded to Danila Solunov, a fellow third-year student of the same programme, who took second place.
Third and fourth place went to Vitaly Kozlov (first year) and Vladimir Gerasikov (second year), both studying on the same programme; they each received second-degree honours.
Fifth and sixth place—and third-degree honours—were awarded to Denis Mustafin (third-year student at MIPT) and Andrey Akhmadullin (third-year student at MEPhl).
Seventh, eighth, and ninth place (fourth-degree honours) were taken by Applied Mathematics and Information Science students Timofey Izhitsky and Andrey Pavlov (both in their second year), as well as first-year student Artyom Sevidov.
The full competition results are available here (in Russian).
Anton Stepanov
‘Taking part in the camp is an excellent opportunity to compete with strong teams and prepare for the ICPC quarterfinals and semifinals,’ said Anton Stepanov. ‘I was pleased with the high quality of the contests and the challenging tasks. I also took part in the Techarena Challenge—a competition featuring an unusual optimisation problem. It was a pleasant surprise to see algorithms being applied to real-world problems.’
Andrey Pavlov
‘The competition task turned out to be genuinely interesting,’ noted Andrey Pavlov. ‘The algorithms we learn in olympiad clubs and at university are indeed used in real life—this task on data transfer between graphics cards proved that. I also liked the scoring system: changes in the approach to solving the problem had a noticeable effect on the rankings.’
During the camp, participants worked in teams to solve algorithmic problems. Each round lasted five hours, followed by a problem analysis session. The main goal of the camp is to prepare students for the quarterfinals and semifinals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).
Mikhail Gustokashin, Director of the Centre of Student Competitions
‘Training camps are one of the most effective forms of preparation for competitions. With such a busy academic schedule, it is difficult to set aside five consecutive hours to solve problems, whereas multi-day camps allow participants to fully disconnect from other tasks and focus on this. Our camps have already become some of the largest in Russia, and we hope they will attract even more strong teams in the coming years.’
The event was held with the support of Techarena. Representatives of the company noted: ‘The students demonstrated a high level of preparation, judging by the results of the optimisation problem competition. The distinctive feature of Techarena Challenge optimisation problems is that they are as close as possible to real industrial tasks, which further increases student interest.’
Text by: Alexandra Sytnik
See also:
HSE Students Show Outstanding Results at Prestigious CTF Competitions
In late October 2025, HSE University students achieved outstanding results in several Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions on information security. Five students joined the Moscow national team, which won the Russian Sports Programming Championship, while three other HSE teams became finalists and winners of the UralCUP CTF and the Kuban CTF tournaments. The CTF Academy, an initiative that brings together students and teachers, has served as a central hub for building HSE's CTF community.
HSE University's FCS Team Wins BSUIR Open Sports Programming Championship
On April 26, 2025, the student final of the 13th Open Team Championship in Sports Programming of Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics took place in Minsk (Belarus). More than 300 teams took part in the semi-final of the competition, while only 29 teams took part in the final, including three teams from HSE University, which ended up taking first, third, and fifth places.
Indonesia Hosts HSE International Olympiad for First Time
HSE University and the Russian House in Indonesia have held the first offline INTO HSE olympiad in Jakarta. It is a new, free event in English for international school students.
Winners of Student Research Paper Competition 2024 Receive Awards
On February 10, the award ceremony for the winners and laureates of the 2024 Student Research Paper Competition took place at HSE University. Out of the 1,916 students to submit projectsto the competition, 320 participants became winners and laureates and were awarded in four categories: social sciences, economics and management sciences, exact sciences, humanities and creative industries.
HSE Student among Winners of Yandex Cup 2024
In early December, the finals of the Yandex Cup international programming competition took place in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). The prize, which totalled a record 16 million roubles, was shared among the winners from Russia, Belarus, Japan, the USA, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Dmitry Rempel, student of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, won in the Backend track.
‘You Should Study Mathematics, Combinatorics, and Catalan Numbers instead of Playing Computer Games’
In early November, the final of the MTS True Tech Champ—which brought together more than 12,500 schoolchildren, students, and young programmers—took place. Alexander Babin, student of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, was named the winner of the ‘Algorithmic Programming’ track.
Double Winner of the International Olympiad in Informatics Admitted to HSE Faculty of Computer Science
Ivan Piskarev, a member of the Russian national team who won gold at both 2023 and 2024 International Olympiads in Informatics (IOI), has enrolled in the bachelor's programme ‘Applied Mathematics and Information Science’ at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science. He first won the competition in September 2023 in Hungary, and then again in September 2024 in Egypt.
HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science Teams Win ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest
On April 14–19, 2024, two finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) took place in Luxor (Egypt). The teams from HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science became world champions in the 47th ICPC final and received gold medals in the 46th final.
Faculty of Computer Science Students Took Top Three Places in Competitive Programming at Games of the Future
The Games of the Future in competitive programming were held in Kazan on February 28th–29th. 50 people from 27 countries took part in the competition. The Russian national team included seven students selected based on the results of the Russian championship organised by the Competitive Programming Federation. The team included three students from Applied Mathematics and Information Science at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science.
HSE University Teams Win Gold and Three Bronzes in ICPC Semifinals
In December, the Northern Eurasia Regional Contests (NERC)—the semifinal of the ICPC international programming contest—took place. This year’s competition featured around 300 teams comprising 900 participants from Russia and other CIS countries. The contest took place simultaneously in St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Astana, and Kutaisi. The majority of teams—a total of 152—took part in the competition at St Petersburg’s MTS Live Hall venue.