Around 58,000 children and young people from all over Austria took part in last year's bebras challenge, which is organized annually by the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) in cooperation with TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). More than 380 schools took part in the contest. 216 pupils achieved the full number of points and were invited to the award ceremony. On Monday the Dean of Computer Science, Gerti Kappel, warmly welcomed 144 pupils together with their parents and teachers at the award ceremony in the Kuppelsaal of TU Wien. 

The list of winners who were present at the event can be found in the press release.

Big celebration at TU Wien

"I am delighted with the great success of our school challenge bebras. The enormous increase in the number of participants by 30 percent compared to the previous year shows the need for a stronger anchoring of informatics as a subject in the school curriculum. Computer science education is particularly important for a successful future for our young people. That is why the OCG is actively campaigning for the establishment of informatics as examination subject at school," said OCG President Thomas Mück, opening the event.

Congrats by Minister of Education

In a video message, Federal Minister Martin Polaschek congratulated the winners, aged between 8 and 18, on their top performances and praised the opportunity to train computational thinking in a playful way with the bebras challenge, promoting problem-solving skills, logical thinking and creativity.

"With this entry-level competition, we want to awaken joy and interest in computer science in children and young people," explained Gerald Futschek (TU Vienna), the "father" of the bebras challenge. According to Futschek, participation in this challenge can lay the foundation for a later career in the field of computer science, which is so important today. Futschek presented the certificates together with OCG General Secretary Ronald Bieber.

"The fact that each year more and more pupils take part in the OCG bebras challenge shows that computer science has arrived in Austria's schools. I congratulate today's winners and wish them lots of fun learning computer science in the future," said Bieber.

Mehr Informationen zum Biber der Informatik.

Event-Fotos.