Winners of IT Contest 2001 announced
11 - 06 - 2001

The results of an information technology (IT) contest for students from local tertiary education institutions were revealed today (June 11).

More than 2 000 undergraduates and higher diploma students from the nine tertiary institutions in Hong Kong competed for the championships of three component competitions of the IT Contest 2001.

The contest, launched in March 2001, was jointly organised by the Information Technology Services Department, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery.

After two-and-a-half months' competition, a team comprising students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the City University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University eventually won the IT Quiz. A team of the Chinese University of Hong Kong won the Collegiate Programming Competition and a team of the City University of Hong Kong won the Practical Project Competition.

Speaking at the award-presentation ceremony of the contest today, the Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee, said that the Government had reviewed its IT strategy and published the 2001 Digital 21 Strategy in May this year with a view to reinforcing Hong Kong's position as a leading international digital city.

"Increasing the IT manpower supply through training and education to ensure that our young people are equipped for the information economy is one of the key result areas of the Government's 2001 Digital 21 Strategy," said Mr Cheng.

"The IT Contest 2001, which is aimed at elevating the awareness and knowledge of IT among tertiary students in Hong Kong so as to equip them for the information economy, is an endeavour under this key result area," he said.

About 70 teams joined the IT Quiz and eventually five teams competed for the champion in the final round competition today following the first round and semi-finals of the quiz.

Furthermore, 14 teams participated in the annual international Collegiate Programming Competition in which they solved six programming problems within the maximum contest time of four hours. The winning team will represent Hong Kong to compete in the Asia Regional Contest to be held later this autumn.

More than 60 teams took part in the Practical Project Competition to compete for the best application of IT with practical values in daily life.

The champion teams, the first runners-up and the second runners-up of the three competitions were awarded with $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 in cash respectively and with other attractive prizes.

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