From 14 to 15 December 2024, Astana IT University hosted the semi-final of the ICPC International Student Olympiad in Sports Programming. 270 students from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan took part in the competition.

The tournament was held simultaneously in Astana, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Tbilisi, gathering the best teams of the Northern Eurasia region. Thanks to a single ranking score, students competed on an international level, demonstrating their skills and ambitions.

‘ICPC is not just an Olympiad, but an important platform for the formation and development of Kazakhstan's techno-digital society. Today we pay special attention to the qualitative development of IT education in the country. The Ministry, together with the world's leading universities, is introducing new educational programmes. For example, a school of artificial intelligence was opened in Kyzylorda in partnership with Seoul University of Science and Technology. New educational programmes have also been developed with such leading universities as the University of Michigan, City University of Hong Kong, Arizona University, KAIST and a number of Moscow universities. This year more than 2,000 students have started studying under these programmes,’ said Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The best results among the participants were shown by the teams:

1. ‘Sorry, who are you?’ (Astana IT University) - winners of the semi-final, which will represent Kazakhstan at ICPC World Finals 2025.
2. ‘1 Natural Intelligence’ (International IT University, Almaty) - silver medallists.
3. ‘Jasdauren Street’ (Nazarbayev University, Astana) - bronze medallists.

‘We are proud that the Astana IT University team won and will represent Kazakhstan at ICPC World Finals 2025. As co-organisers of this prestigious contest, we are delighted that the intellectual minds of Central Asia are drawn to us, to Astana. This confirms our status as a key platform for the development of IT education in the region,’ said Askar Hikmetov, Rector of Astana IT University.

ICPC is the largest and one of the most prestigious programming Olympiads in the world, which has been held since 1977. Participation in the championship offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and strengthen teamwork skills, which is highly valued by international technology companies.

The tournament in Central Asia was organised by the Sports Programming Federation and Astana IT University with the support of partners: Freedom Holding Corp., Freedom Shapaghat CF and Kcell/activ. Holding the ICPC semi-finals in Kazakhstan strengthens the country's position as the IT hub of Central Asia and opens new opportunities for the development of talents in the field of technology.