Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Baku Congress Center held the opening ceremony of 31st International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2019) on August 5. The ceremony was attended by Vice-president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva.

First, the national anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan was sounded.

Head of the Humanitarian Policy Department of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan Farah Aliyeva read out a congratulatory message from the First Vice-president of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva to the participants of the 31st International Olympiad in Informatics.

Azerbaijan's Education Minister, IOI 2019 co-chairman Jeyhun Bayramov noted that the holding of this Olympiad in Azerbaijan is one of the significant events for education in the republic. The International Olympiad in Informatics has come a long way.

Speaking about the successes of our country at international Olympiads, the Minister of Education emphasized that, the international Olympiad in Azerbaijan will contribute to the development of the field of computer science.

The Minister noted that, in Azerbaijan, successfully developing under the leadership of AR President Ilham Aliyev and are being held various international and regional events. Just two weeks ago, the 15th European Youth Olympic Summer Festival was held in Baku. The Eurovision song contest was successfully held in the capital of Azerbaijan in 2012, the first European Games in 2015, the IV Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017 and the Formula 1 Grand Prix stage of Azerbaijan has been held since 2016.

Noting the country's special attention to participating in scientific competitions and holding them, Jeyhun Bayramov recalled that the 47th International Chemical Olympiad was held in Baku in 2015, at which Azerbaijani students won two medals. The Minister emphasized that, such events play a large role in the development of friendship between youth, peace and intercultural dialogue.

Jeyhun Bayramov said that, international scientific Olympiads are not only a means of popularizing science, but also an important part of education. Over the past six years, schoolchildren have brought more than 150 medals from these Olympiads. The effective usage of knowledge gained during the training period is as important as winning these medals. Today, the world is discussing what knowledge and skills will be needed during the fourth industrial revolution. Robotics, global information, artificial intelligence and automation have entered our daily lives. An important issue at such a time is the belief that humanity will make more use of the invented and invented advanced technologies.

Recalling that the first international informatics Olympiad was held 30 years ago in Bulgaria, the Minister of Education noted that, interest in this prestigious event is growing every year. He brought to the attention that the majority of IOI participants are currently leading IT specialists in startups and innovations.

The Minister emphasized that, in 1965, a Professor of the California University, an outstanding Azerbaijani scientist Lotfi Zadeh had made a revolution with his theory of fuzzy logic in Berkeley. For today's youth, Lotfi Zade is a symbol of fidelity to science and the future of mankind.

Azerbaijan's Education Minister Jeyhun Bayramov expressed his gratitude to everyone who invested in organizing the event in Azerbaijan, wished success to the participants of the 31st International Informatics Olympiad.

The rector of the ADA, IOI 2019 honorary co-chairman Hafiz Pashayev, speaking at the official opening ceremony of the Olympiad being held at the Baku Convention Center, noted in the first place that the University hopes to benefit from this massive event in the future.

"ADA established the Faculty of Information Technology Engineering in 2013. Many its graduates now work for international companies such as Microsoft and Google. My main goal is to train personnel for Azerbaijan in such an important field," he said.

The rector noted that the university students have a promising future. "The education they receive here takes them to a new level. I hope that our students will also be among the winners, which in the future will affect the attraction of new young talents in this area," Hafiz Pashayev said.

He also said that the university intends to develop and expand this area. “We have plans not only for the IT sphere, we want to contribute to other areas of engineering. In this regard, in the future we are going to open a specialized science camp near our university. We started to cooperate with the world's leading universities. Our main difficulty now is linked to attracting high-quality teachers. We have come to the conclusion that we will train teachers on our own. For this purpose, we will send our students to master's and doctoral programs at advanced world universities, and in the future they will become our leading experts," the rector of the ADA said.

According to him, despite the fact that the university has already gained a certain reputation, his biggest desire is to make the university the country's leading IT and engineering institution. "Therefore, the significance of this Olympiad in Baku is that we want to invite guests and participants to our university and show them our capabilities, tell them about the university scholarship program, so that they would come to us willingly in the future. I would like to express special gratitude to the Azerbaijani government and sponsors who helped to the hold this Olympiad," Hafiz Pashayev concluded.

The President of the International Olympiad in Informatics, Professor Greg Lee acquainted the participants of the ceremony with the declaration of the opening of IOI 2019, spoke on the importance of the competition.

Vice-president of Acer Grigory Nizovsky, the official global sponsor of the Olympiad in Russia, Eastern Europe and Turkey spoke on the cooperation between Acer and IOI.

Subsequently, delegations IOI 2019 from 88 countries and regions were represented.

At the opening ceremony, was demonstrated a video, reflected the logo of all international computer science Olympiads held since 1989, as well as videos on the activities of the official IOI sponsor - Acer and Baku.

The event continued with an artistic part.

According to the Order, signed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov ANAS Vice-president, Director of the ANAS Institute of Information Technology, academician Rasim Alguliyev is a member of the organizing committee of the 31st International Olympiad in Informatics.

Note that, 31st International Olympiad in Informatics will last til August 11. Official delegations consisting of more than 600 pupils, teachers and experts from 88 countries and regions, including the Azerbaijani team have registered to participate in the International Olympiad in Informatics, which is being held in Azerbaijan for the first time.

The 31st International Olympiad in Informaticsis supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, ADA University, Ministry of Transport, Communication and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan and other government agencies.

Acer is the official global sponsor of the Olympiad. In addition, from local companies, country’s leading mobile operator Azercell Telecom supports the event as the Digital Talent Sponsor and PASHA Bank as the Talent Sponsor. Public Television ITV (İctimai Television) is the IOI’s key media partner.

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