Only a short post today as I was spending most of the morning on the phone with some PR folks in Germany talking about the German National Computer Science Competition (page in German).  I participated in and was one of five national winners in one of the early years this competition was held.  They called to find out what I thought of it all these years later (this year marks the 30th anniversary of the competition overall).  I told them that I had very fond memories and was glad to see this tradition continue for a number of reasons (other than feeling good about winning).  At the time it was the first formal recognition that spending a lot of time learning how to program a computer was something potentially worthwhile.  My parents had been super supportive but still didn’t quite know what to make of computers and there was nothing at school.  It also was a great way of meeting other kids who were really into computers which was particularly great for me as I lived in a relatively small village.  The competition with its emphasis on algorithms helped spur my interest in a deeper understanding of computing which has served me well over the year.  Finally, as a winner I automatically qualified for an important scholarship which helped pay part of my way through Harvard as an undergraduate.  So I continue to be grateful for the existence of this competition and am happy to see it still going strong!

Only a short post today as I was spending most of the morning on the phone with some PR folks in Germany talking about the German National Computer Science Competition (page in German).  I participated in and was one of five national winners in one of the early years this competition was held.  They called to find out what I thought of it all these years later (this year marks the 30th anniversary of the competition overall).  I told them that I had very fond memories and was glad to see this tradition continue for a number of reasons (other than feeling good about winning).  At the time it was the first formal recognition that spending a lot of time learning how to program a computer was something potentially worthwhile.  My parents had been super supportive but still didn’t quite know what to make of computers and there was nothing at school.  It also was a great way of meeting other kids who were really into computers which was particularly great for me as I lived in a relatively small village.  The competition with its emphasis on algorithms helped spur my interest in a deeper understanding of computing which has served me well over the year.  Finally, as a winner I automatically qualified for an important scholarship which helped pay part of my way through Harvard as an undergraduate.  So I continue to be grateful for the existence of this competition and am happy to see it still going strong!