Programming Oscars come to an end, Baidu Star finals students win big prizes
2024-08-20
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On August 18, the 2024 Baidu Star Programming Contest (hereinafter referred to as "Baidu Star"), known as the "Oscar of the technology world", came to an end. Nearly a thousand people wrote codes at the same time, middle school students almost monopolized the awards, and back-to-back champions were born... Baidu Star is like a technology carnival for the next generation of Chinese programming, and more and more people are joining in.
Nearly 1,000 top students compete for the "Oscar of Programming", with the proportion of primary and secondary school students reaching a new high
Baidu Star was launched in 2005. It is the only enterprise-level programming competition in China that has been held for 20 consecutive years. It was selected into the competition catalog of the "National College Student Competition Analysis Report" and upgraded to a "national competition". It is one of the most well-known and influential Internet programming competitions in China. At present, there are more than 300,000 contestants in Baidu Star, which is known as the "Oscar of the technology world".
The Baidu Star finals this year are the same as the current international ACM competition types, but the special thing is that from the preliminary to the final, a single-person team mode is adopted, which tests the absolute strength of the contestants. The contestants must complete 12 algorithm problems of different difficulty coefficients within 5 hours. The questions and competition system are extremely challenging and selective.
The number of participants in this year's finals hit a new high, with nearly a thousand contestants participating, including many gold medalists of the Informatics Olympiad and national team members. Among them, 73% of the contestants came from universities such as Tsinghua University, Nankai University, Tongji University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 12% of the contestants came from high schools such as Nanjing Foreign Language School, Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School, and Hailiang Senior High School, and 15% of the contestants were primary school students, setting a new record. The youngest contestant was only 11 years old. In addition, students who performed well in the Mati Cup National College Student Programming Competition participated in the competition as star contestants.
The only sound heard in the stadium with nearly a thousand people was the typing of keyboards.
National team brothers meet at the top, Cheng Siyuan reverses and wins double championship
In this brainstorming competition, 9 of the top 10 were middle school students, exceeding the "middle school content" standard. Among them, Wang Maohua from Hailiang Junior High School and Chen Nuo from Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School have participated in Baidu Star many times and have now grown into "God Ben" and "Big Brother" level figures who dominate the information circle. Some college students said, "Thank you Baidu Star for counting college students and middle school students separately when awarding awards."
One of the highlights of this competition is the peak battle between the last year's champion Cheng Siyuan and Zhou Kangyang from Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School. The two have a long history. Cheng is a member of the national team for the 2023 Informatics Olympiad, while Zhou is selected for the national team for the first time this year and is Cheng's "junior brother". They have faced off many times in Baidu Star. Last year, Cheng Siyuan finally won the championship after 5 consecutive years of participation, and Zhou Kangyang won the gold medal in the high school group.
The competition for the championship was fierce. With nearly 2 hours left before the end of the competition, Zhou Kangyang was the first to submit his results, with all 12 questions AK (full marks), and he topped the list. 10 seconds later, Cheng Siyuan also submitted his results, all AK. In the end, "senior brother" Cheng Siyuan defeated "junior brother" Zhou Kangyang with the advantage of less AK total time and won the championship, becoming the second player in the 20-year history of Baidu Star to achieve back-to-back championships. Zhou Kangyang once again won the gold medal in the high school group with the second place in the whole game.
Cheng Siyuan (left) and Li Xuanya, Director of Baidu's University Cooperation Department
"Before coming here, I didn't have high expectations for winning again. I just came here to play. It would be great if I could win a prize." Cheng Siyuan will enter Tsinghua University in the new semester. He is not satisfied with two consecutive championships. "I have participated in Baidu Star for 6 consecutive years. I hope to come again next year. It has taught me a lot. It is very fun to compete with everyone." Zhou Kangyang, who has failed in the challenge for two consecutive years, said domineeringly: "I want to compete with Cheng Siyuan in Baidu Star next year."
Zhou Kangyang aggressively challenges Cheng Siyuan
After the intense finals, Su Feifei, head of education operations at Baidu Apollo Open Platform, gave the students a lecture titled "Baidu Apollo Autonomous Driving Technology Practice and Application". She introduced the basic implementation principles, key technologies and the autonomous driving practice community Apollo Studio to the contestants, and introduced a series of new professions born around driverless driving, broadening the students' horizons.
Su Feifei, head of education operations at Baidu Apollo Open Platform, explains driverless technology
Baidu has been committed to cultivating technical talents for 20 years
After 20 consecutive years, the competition is only one aspect of Baidu Star. Regardless of ranking, winning gold or latte, the contestants show a mutual respect that goes beyond winning or losing. There are many scenes of cross-school and cross-age exchanges of experience and skills, and the competition field is full of joy.
The contestants come to participate in the competition as well as to attend the party.
At present, Baidu Star has become an annual benchmark competition that algorithm programming enthusiasts must participate in. In the past 20 years, the players who have grown up in Baidu Star have actively promoted the development of science and technology and artificial intelligence in various fields. The influence of Baidu Star has radiated from the competition to the industry. Cultivating talents through competition and driving the industry with talents is the original intention of Baidu to hold the competition for 20 years.
"Baidu has always attached great importance to the cultivation and development of technical talents. Programming, as a language that connects reality and the future, is not only a combination of codes, but also a spark of thought and the key to solving real problems." Li Xuanya, director of Baidu's University Cooperation Department, said, "Every award given by Baidu Star to the contestants is to encourage everyone to devote their talents and spirit to the wave of national science and technology construction, and continue one AC and AK after another."
Yiping Xiaofeng
Photo: Professor He Yanxiang of Wuhan University, Professor Wu Xiaojun of Tsinghua University, Professor Wang Qian of Chongqing University, Professor Huang Lan of Jilin University, and Ji Xiangting, Deputy Director of Baidu University Cooperation Department, present awards to the contestants
