Nine days of intensive competitions, direct communication with some of the strongest programmers, and full immersion in the world of competitive programming — these were the main results of the FITR team’s trip to Uzbekistan.
From July 5 to 13, 2026, IT Park University in Tashkent hosted an international training camp for participants in the ICPC World Championship. The event brought together dozens of teams from different countries to improve their skills in solving complex algorithmic problems and exchange experience under conditions closely resembling the ICPC finals.
The Faculty of Information Technologies and Robotics of BNTU was represented at this prestigious event by students Roman Naumov, Denis Zheleznyakov, and Maksim Serov. The team was accompanied by Darya Skuratova, an assistant at the department, who coordinated their participation and helped establish communication with the organizers.
Daily Routine: Contests and Solution Analysis
The central part of the program consisted of daily training competitions, or contests, held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. local time. Each five-hour marathon simulated the actual ICPC finals format: a team of three participants used one computer to solve a set of problems of increasing difficulty.
The participants had to demonstrate not only a deep knowledge of algorithms and data structures, but also strong time-management skills, effectively distributing roles within the team.
After the main competition, leading coaches from Uzbekistan and invited experts conducted detailed solution-analysis sessions. These sessions continued into the evening and allowed the participants not only to review their own approaches, but also to discover alternative and more elegant solutions proposed by other teams.
More Than Algorithms: Cultural and Networking Activities
The organizers of the camp, IT Park University, prepared not only intensive training competitions, but also a rich extracurricular program. The participants took part in guided tours of Tashkent and were introduced to the national cuisine and culture of Uzbekistan.
In the evenings, informal meetings were held with representatives of IT companies operating in the region, as well as round-table discussions on the development of competitive programming in Central Asian countries.
“Events like this provide a unique opportunity to see how colleagues from other universities work, exchange contacts, and make new friends,” said Darya Skuratova. “Our students actively participated in discussions, asked the organizers questions, and even helped less experienced teams understand difficult topics. It was a genuine exchange of knowledge.”
Results and Plans for the Future
According to the Dean of FITR, participation in such training camps is part of the faculty’s strategy to increase the competitiveness of its students on the international stage.
“We regularly send our teams to external training venues so that they can adapt to different conditions, different problem-setting styles, and the psychological pressure of competitions. The Tashkent training camp showed that our students are ready for serious competition, and we are confident that the experience they gained will bring positive results during the upcoming ICPC qualification rounds,” a representative of the faculty administration commented.
The students have already begun incorporating the new strategies into their daily training. The department also plans to organize an internal analysis of the problems presented at the camp so that other FITR students can explore the most interesting solutions.
We would like to thank IT Park University for its warm welcome and the excellent organization of the event. A new competitive season lies ahead for our programmers, and the Tashkent training camp has become an important step on their way towards major victories.
