FII Competition Detailed Proposal – ASII, Iasi, Romania Our organization

The Association of Computer Science Students of Iasi - ASII [http://www.asii.ro] is a non-governmental, apolitical and non-profit organization whose

purpose is to defend the dignity, the rights and the socio-professional interests of the students in the Faculty of Computer Science of Iasi - FII

[http://www.infoiasi.ro]. Established in March 1990, ASII is the oldest student association in the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Unversity of Iasi – UAIC

[http://www.uaic.ro] to which FII belongs. ASII has as its main objectives: to solidify the relationship with the academic society, facilitate the

exchanges of people and information, facilitate the access of students at various scientific, cultural and sport exhibitions and promote the

spiritedness among the students and young people in general. ASII has always searched for collaborations with other similar entities, with central

and local state governmental entities and with educational institutions, in order to develop activities necessary to fulfill its objectives and purpose.

ASII is a member of the National Union of Students in Romania (UNSR) [http://www.unsr.ro/membrii/] and it is also a founder member of the city

Consortium of Students and Young Organization in Iasi, to which most of the organizations in Iasi belong.

The main organizational agenda of ASII consists of the following projects. More details can be found on our website and blog [http://blog.asii.ro].

1. FII Competition is an open participation CS event addressed to teams of students in University and K12 that had 3 editions so far.

2. Our newspaper is a monthly appearance that informs students on faculty life, professors, oportunities, volunteership [http://ziar.asii.ro].

3. Digiphoto addresses to all digital photography passionate people with more than 1300 photos [http://www.facebook.com/digiphoto.asii].

4. Christmas from a student’s heart is a fund raising by auction based artistic event for socially impaired, e.g. the city Don Bosco Center.

5. Outdoor olympics addresses to students and professors in the faculty who play football, streetball and speed run for health and fun.

6. Indoor olympics engages Computer Science students in sports, such as chess, pool, table tennis etc., and social activities.

Each project succeeds itself year after year, as we aim higher each time. We were also organizers with volunteers to the following events:

1. Doctoral School on Evolutionary Computing in Optimization and Data Mining 2011 [http://profs.info.uaic.ro/~summerschool/].

2. Summer School on Human Language Technologies EuroLAN 2011 [http://eurolan.info.uaic.ro/2011/?page_id=5].

3. International Conference of Intelligent Processing and Computational Linguistics 2010 [http://www.cicling.org/2010/].

4. Design Jam Iasi 2011 [http://www.designjams.org/wiki/Design_Jam_Iasi#Organisers] organized by Mozilla Labs [http://mozillalabs.com/].

5. Algorithmiad 2010 [http://infoarena.ro/algoritmiada-2010] contest on algorithmics organized by InfoArena [http://infoarena.ro].

Status quo

Before 2011, there was no student based association and faculty of Computer Science in Romania to organize a long-standing competition that

would address all college and high school students in an open format. The important competitions in Romania contained sections especially for high

school students, some of them containing only one section addressed to college students. UAIC and its FII were the organizers of the Balkan

Olympiad in Informatics in 2003 [http://students.info.uaic.ro/~boi2003/] and the third edition of the FII Competition, named F11 in its third edition in

2011. The former brought together pupils from Cyprus, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The

latter had impact on ~900 participating students. The FII Competition – especially its third edition F11 of 2011 – was a gateway to the companies in

the industry (via trainings, workshops and job opportunities). The good feedback of this year’s edition encouraged us to believe in the participants’

involvement in our future events. On their side, they are willing to permanently sharpen their thinking and enhance their achievements. On our side,

we would like to offer them consistent rewards for their outstanding progress.

History

The FII Competition was held in 3 editions, all of them being organized by ASII and FII:

2009 consisted of a software development event exclusively addressed to the FII and other university students

[http://www.slideshare.net/busaco/concursul-fii-competition-2009-jurizare-premiere-30-martie-2009].

2010 consisted of an algorithms and programming round (such as the Olympiad in Informatics) for high school students in Iasi.

2011 named F11 extended the first two, by providing three sections for teams of students in University and K12 and it went national

[http://fiicompetition.ro/f11/].

FII Competition in brief

The project expects the participants to make the most of their abilities and to develop skills, through the competition: algorithmic and analytical,

design and implementation, artistic and aesthetic thinking, as well as delivering a structured presentation of a team’s work in front of a specialized

audience. The problems and the solutions are suggested and revised by a Committee consisting of representatives of prestigious companies in the

industry, University professors and high school teachers. The competition not only consists of rounds of development or design in specific areas,

but also it includes:

introductory lectures held by university professors, especially for the high school students,

training sessions held by representatives of the partner companies, especially for the college students.

recreational and personal development activities.

F11 Competition

The F11 edition [http://fiicompetition.ro/f11/] was organized by:

The Association of Students in Computer Science of Iasi [http://www.asii.ro] (ASII) was the main organizer of the entire project. The

involvement of more than 40 volunteer student members allowed us to fulfill the objectives to ~99%.

The Faculty of Computer Science of Iasi [http://www.infoiasi.ro] (FII) had a major impact as the organizing academic institution. The

Faculty got involved in the activities concerning the competition itself (format, rules, committee, tasks, solutions, juring, grading, award

nomination). FII also provided infrastructure for our competition: rooms, computers, live streaming and (wireless) internet access. The

Faculty of Computer Science also funded us by providing us with €1000 to promote the competition all over the country. The popular

official blog of the Faculty [http://fiistudent.wordpress.com/] also promoted our competition in posts throughout the project run.

The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University [http://www.uaic.ro] (UAIC) organized F11, not only as the aegis institution, but also with discounts

for meals of the finalists at its own canteen, the promotion of F11 through its Media department and its website, the assignment of an

experienced commitee member and its live streamed aulas for the F11 ceremonies.

The County Schools Inspectorate [http://www.isjiasi.ro] (ISJ), as our organizing partner, offered consistent support by providing

discounted housing in the local high schools’ campuses and advertisement on its website, on the forums and discussion groups of all CS

inspectors and high school professors in the country, and direct announcements to CS professors in our county.

Our key objectives in order to achieve the purpose in the 2011 edition were:

O1

O2

O3

O4

O5

To promote the competition in at least 5 university centers, 5 high schools, 5 associations, 2 social websites, 3 blogs and 2 traffic

websites, during the entire competition, in 3 steps: teasing, live-streaming press conference, viral campaign.

To publish and maintain a Website throughout the competition, in 3 stages: count-down to the press conference, presentation of the

competition, complete information (including problems, registration and submission forms).

To have 60 participants for the final round.

To organize the competition days (26th

- 30th

of May) and an online qualification round, if necessary.

To promote the identity and offers of the partners during the trainings through promotional products.

The competition consisted of two stages:

1. Development / Preparing stage (1 march 2011 – 20 may 2011) – students solved tasks online and submitted solutions on the website.

2. Final stage (26 march 2011 – 29 march 2011) – organized in Iasi at FII and UAIC, where students were involved in various activities.

The students participated in teams of 1 to 3 university and/or K12 students, plus one optional mentor to at least one of the three sections: Web

Technologies, Algorithms and Programming, Digital Art. In the first stage, 917 participants created accounts on our website and submitted solutions:

72 students in 32 teams for the Web Technology section

733 students in 32 teams for the Algorithms and Programming section

112 students in 47 teams for the Digital Art section

In the final round, 46 competitors were qualified (11, 22 and 13 students in each of the above sections, respectively). More details on statistics can

be found in the charts from this presentation [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/f11-prezentare-etapa-finala].

Before the development stage, F11 consisted of the following activities (we add links to public image albums from each):

Team meeting We established the project team in our association.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.117952594948552.22081.100002014361560&type=1&l=bd58bec753] depicts the team

Teasing campaign We organized a flash mob and we promoted the competition in our city.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.103369293073549.4636.100002014361560&type=1&l=d03408bd48] some teasing stickers

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.106108849466260.8898.100002014361560&type=1&l=d4922f9b02] other materials

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.125893254154486.29477.100002014361560&type=1&l=bf951098f7] our flash mob

Press conference We presented (also in live streaming) the competition to potential sponsors, after the teasing campaign.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.125891990821279.29476.100002014361560&type=1&l=10d34be3c7]

During the development stage, the next activities were performed in the F11 project:

East Promotional Caravan Went to 6 Romanian cities (Galati, Braila, Constanta, Bucuresti, Pitesti, Brasov) to promote F11 and FII in

high schools and universities in those cities.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.118050218272123.22123.100002014361560&type=1&l=d83c851cc0]

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.116546751755803.21317.100002014361560&type=1&l=6bad6d169a]

West Promotional Caravan Went to high schools and universities in 5 Romanian cities (Cluj-Napoca, Arad, Timisoara, Craiova, Sibiu).

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.116549415088870.21323.100002014361560&type=1&l=6c487a4fcf]

Caravan of 3D scanners A team went to an ethnofolkloric village museum in order to 3D scan artefacts for a Digital Art task of designing

a virtual museum. Some of the photos in the albums from below were used as input materials for that task.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132817476795397.32571.100002014361560&type=1&l=ecfa74155e]

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132822386794906.32574.100002014361560&type=1&l=c5625e0663]

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132827686794376.32580.100002014361560&type=1&l=48d11b83ef]

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132832090127269.32581.100002014361560&type=1&l=36f390aeca]

FII at the UAIC Open Doors event The F11 Competition was promoted at the FII stand.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.124454830964995.25485.100002014361560&type=1&l=11058d264e]

The final stage of F11 had the activities from below (in chronological order):

Opening ceremony In the UAIC aula (also in live streaming) greeted all participants and provided advertisement moments for partners.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132857980124680.32591.100002014361560&type=1&l=89c35a91c2]

Aula exhibition In the UAIC main aula, companies had promotional stands, while Digital Art students had personal exhibitions with their

works put to the wall for a popularity award. The entry of everyone was open and the public could interact with our industry partners.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132851440125334.32588.100002014361560&type=1&l=7403df3150]

Web technologies presentation In the UAIC aula the students presented their work developed during the development stage to the

committee formed by partner companies’ representatives and university professors.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132840110126467.32585.100002014361560&type=1&l=ae114ee997]

Fast sessions Were rounds of a few hours of development or creation for each of the three sections, in which teams had to solve a

specific problem at the first sight. The sessions were named Fast Insight (Algorithms and Programming section), Fast Development (for

the Web Technologies section) and Fast Creativity (Digital Art).

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133206340089844.32780.100002014361560&type=1&l=d434f25af7]

Open air trainings with ASII Consisted of personal development social games in team building format held by ASII trainers.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132835626793582.32582.100002014361560&type=1&l=79ae35c681]

Dining ceremony Included ad-hoc lightning talks held by students on CS topics.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133203650090113.32778.100002014361560&type=1&l=2604b58f37]

Courses with university professors Especially for K12 students, were held in the FII amphitheaters.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133208010089677.32781.100002014361560&type=1&l=2e794964b5]

Trainings with partners’ representatives Especially for university students, consisted of interesting technology presentations.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133209916756153.32782.100002014361560&type=1&l=10abfb1262]

Pizzas break For the hungry developers and artists out there between the courses and trainings.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133202093423602.32777.100002014361560&type=1&l=87e88236a1]

Walk in the Copou park Allowed students to explore our city and the beautiful Botanic garden of UAIC.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133198556757289.32775.100002014361560&type=1&l=3274279e3d]

Closing ceremony The prizes were awarded to their winners, and companies had own advertisement moments. The UAIC vice-rector of

International Cooperation was present and he wished all students success.

[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.132861560124322.32595.100002014361560&type=1&l=d1d51b7720]

The main beneficiaries of F11 were:

University and K12 students in Romania is the main group of beneficiaries. A natural extension of this was to invite participants (both

students and Committee members) from the Republic of Moldova. Since we allowed no participation fee and we provided free meals,

hotel, materials and prizes from our own funds, we think this format would allow every talented student and mentor to participate and win.

Sponsors had the opportunity to promote their identity among all participants through various materials, in exchange for money or in-kind

help. We provided flexible sponsorship packages as Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorships. The most involved sponsors were

our partners. They had the opportunity to promote themselves among the participants through trainings offered to both univers ity and high

school students. They had the opportunity of proposing their own tasks and delegate representatives in committees for all sections.

Furthermore, they could provide special prizes and recruit preselected participants.

Media partners who promoted our competition with their services (radio, TV, newspaper, website) or provided articles about us. For

instance, one media partner promoted us in all public transport buses and malls, on the informational displays mounted in them.

We collaborated with the following (we raised more than €7000 for the F11 edition):

Platinum sponsors (partners): Amazon Development Center Romania, eMAG, Continental Automotive Romania, Embarcadero

Romania, Microsoft Romania, Syncrosoft, The Red Point, Polirom ABB SA, Movial Romania, Maxcode Romania.

Gold sponsors: Bentley Romania, Ditech Romania.

Media (radios, blogs, television): FII Student, City Television Network (CITY), Edu Moodle, InfoArena, .campion, newsiasi.ro, Iasi Live,

Evenimente Studentesti.ro, Iasi Life, WorldIT, Radio VoxT, Iasi Fun, Incomod, Satmareanul, Student FII, BT Online, Magazin Salajean,

Ziarul de Bacau, Reflectorul de Vaslui, TeenPress, Ziarul de Iasi, Iasi TV Life.

The prizes of F11 were in €2000 in gift cards/tickets from the Romanian eMAG retailer. To these there were also added as prizes

Software licenses from SyncroSoft (value of approximately €1600).

Tickets of 5% discount for any product bought from eMAG (€1000).

T-shirts and hats from Microsoft Romania.

This way, the value of our prizes was €3600 to which the gift cards are added.

Problems we (or our competitors) encountered at F11

1. The objective O2 was the most challenging to achieve. Since we had to update the tasks, registrations and results permanently during the

development stage, uptime problems appeared. We did our best and in the end we ensured that no student was disadvantaged. We

provided support on registration on our website for all of those who reported problems with the website.

2. The objective O4 was also hard to achieve because the final stage of the competition took place in the schooling and university year. This

restricted the number of housing beds we could obtain from the University, not even at the full price. We had overseen this issue in the

modelling phase of the competition and our partnership with ISJ included housing backup.

3. Since we were limited by the funds for housing and meals, we had to stick with the least number of days for the final round. This way, the

various activities we envisioned in the program were very dense, and our competitors may have left with some fatigue.

4. Even though we managed to offer prizes of over €3600, some award winners said that the prizes could have been more substantial.

Changes we (or our competitors) found for the fourth “F12” edition

Due to the fact that our university year has just started this October, the election for the next project managers of F12 did not take place yet. The

novel changes that come as solutions for the problems with F11 are:

1. We will assign as soon as the elections take place a team of website developers with redundancy, that will be supervized by our

university Web Technologies and Human Computer Interaction professor [http://profs.info.uaic.ro/~busaco] until 1 December 2011.

2. We will move the final stage to the summer of 2012. We will be able to find housing more easily and UAIC will be able to provide free

rooms in its campuses. This way, we may direct our funds towards the prizes. There will also be a possibility to organize the final stage to

a remote pitoresque location (e.g. with help from other Romanian educational institutions).

3. By moving the final round to the summer, we have the opportunity to extend the program to more than 4 days. In this way, the final stage

may be seen as a true summer school, in which recreational activities with participants balance with the competition itself and its tasks.

4. By taking into account the current trends in CS and application development, we plan to divide the Web Technologies section into two

parts: website application development and mobile application development.

Additional online documents (translation tools may be required)

F11 portfolio [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/f11-portfolio].

Press conference presentation [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/f11-conferin-de-pres].

Presentation held by caravans [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/f11-7688786].

Opening ceremony presentation [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/f11-prezentare-etapa-finala].

All participants were awarded with participation diplomas [http://fiicompetition.ro/f11/wp-content/uploads/diplome/].

Internal report meeting plan made before the final round [http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition/raport-edin-intern].

FII Student posts regarding F11 or its participants [http://fiistudent.wordpress.com/?s=F11].

F11 official blog [http://blog.fiicompetition.ro/].

We are also on Facebook [http://www.facebook.com/fiicompetition], Twitter [@fiicompetition] and Slideshare

[http://www.slideshare.net/fiicompetition].