The Olympiad was organized by Google clubs; IEEE Najah Student Branch and GDG Nablus, of the Faculty of Engineering and IT at An-Najah and was supported by Wataniya Mobile Palestine, CoolNet and Start Company.

The Olympiad included more than 97 contestants who formed 34 teams to represent six Palestinian universities; namely, An-Najah National University, Birzeit University, Palestine Polytechnic University, the Arab American University, Kadoorie University and Bethlehem University.

In the concluding ceremony, Dr. Khaled Al-Sahli, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and IT thanked Wataniya, the main sponsor of the event, and said that the university aims at supporting events that offer services to the Palestinian community and its different sectors.

In turn, Ms. Hanin Khoury, Representative of Wataniya Mobile stressed the importance of supporting the Palestinian youth in different fields and enriching the IT sector in Palestine.

The winning teams were Void from Birzeit University ranked first, Heroes or Zeros from An-Najah ranked second and UP team from the Polytechnic University ranked third.

The winners received prizes from Wataniya worth $3,000.

At the end, the judges thanked the attendees and stated that this event will be held annually to upgrade Palestinian students’ academic level and encourage them to compete and excel.

Notes:

Palestine Programming Olympiad is a programming competition on the national level, in which the participants compete in solving a set of real world problems utilizing their programming skills. The competition lasts for 24-hours and aims at evaluating the participants’ skills in employing their programming skills to solve various problems while efficiently managing their time. The competition also promotes team working ethics and spirit.

For more information about the Olympiad, please visit the links:

http://www.pal-po.com/

http://www.facebook.com/PalPO2016