Samsung announced the winners of the V National competition in the development of mobile applications «IT School selects the strongest!»

Moscow, July 16, 2019 — The final of the nationwide contest «IT SCHOOL Chooses the Strongest!» was held in Moscow. The competition was attended by all 2018-2019 school year graduates of the «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» program, who presented the mobile application they coded in Java language for the Android platform during their year of study. 17 teams from 11 cities — Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Ufa and Chelyabinsk — reached the finals of the competition. The event took place at the Samsung AI Center - Moscow.

«SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» is a federal social educational program for training future IT specialists. Every year, as part of the project, more than 1,000 high school students from Kaliningrad to the Far East take part in free training. In the 2019-2020 academic year, the program will operate in 40 regions of Russia. The course of «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» was developed by specialists from Samsung Research Russia (SRR) and MIPT — one of the leading Russian university in the areas of physics and technology. The students master the fundamental areas of IT and programming in a form adapted for high school students and gain practical skills in developing mobile applications in the «from idea to distribution» ideology. The course is designed for one academic year (132 academic hours) and includes 4 academic hours of group lessons with a teacher per week. Classes are held in the form of additional education. According to the poll of graduates of «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» of 2019 academic year, 99% of say that their interest in IT and programming has increased. Projects of all graduates enter the annual federal competition of mobile applications «IT SCHOOL Chooses the Strongest!».

The «IT SCHOOL Chooses the Strongest!» contest has been held annually since 2015, which all graduates of each year’s «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» program take part in it. The purpose of the contest is to popularize the fields of IT and programming and to identify gifted high school students all over Russia and to advance their creative potential and competences in mobile app development.

In May 2019, the winners of the regional round of the competition of graduation projects were chosen among the graduates of the «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» program. In June, the second qualifying round took place during which a jury of instructors from «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» and specialists from Samsung Research Russia (SRR) selected the finalists among 62 projects from 21 regions of Russia.

The awards of the finals of the competition «IT SCHOOL Chooses the Strongest!» were given in the flowing nominations: «Programming», «Gaming Application», «Social Application» and «Users’ Choice». The author of the best work was awarded the Grand Prix. All winners received certificates and gifts from Samsung.

Winners in the nomination «Programming»:
1st place — Yaromir Myznikov from Omsk with the project «Capture the Flag»
2nd place — Roman Samara, Alexander Sergeev from St. Petersburg with the project MySweetyPhone
3rd place — Aslan Baryshnikov from St. Petersburg with the WordPress Android Client project

Winners in the nomination «Game App»:
1st place — Demian Podkovyrov, Vladislav Karandashov, Maxim Temnenkov from Volgograd with the project GeoBattle
2nd place — Theodor Arseny Larionov-Trishkin from Moscow with the project Space Shooter
3rd place — Danil Khairulin from Kazan with the project Adventure for Items

Winners in the nomination «Social App»
1st place — Maxim Zenin from Volgograd with the project Street of Sport
2nd place — Alexander Romanov from Yekaterinburg with the project Elspirado — AsthmaApp
3rd place — Konstantin Smirnov from Rostov-on-Don with the project LINS

Sophia Tkachenko from Rostov-on-Don won the Grand Prix for the application ScreenPuzzle.

Demyan Podkovyrov, Vladislav Karandashov, Maxim Temnenkov from Volgograd won in the nomination «Users’ Choice» with the GeoBattle project.

The projects were evaluated according to the following criteria: relevance and novelty of the idea, functionality of the application, technical implementation, usability, and design.

The chairman of the jury board of the nationwide contest «IT SCHOOL Chooses the Strongest!» was Ilya Kurilin, Samsung Research Russia (SRR). The works of the contestants were also judged by leading experts of Samsung Research Russia (SRR) and of the largest Russian IT companies, including head of educational programs at the Samsung Research Russia (SRR) Svetlana Yun, Ph.D., head of the innovation business laboratory of the Samsung Research Russia (SRR) Roman Aynbund, Android developer of Yandex Maps Dmitry Zaitsev, Technical Manager of Yandex Lyceum Irina Nefedova, Leading Developer of Kaspersky Lab Solutions at Kaspersky Lab Sergey Yakovlev, Technical Manager of Mail.ru Group Educational projects Dmitry Sannikov, head of the competence center for mobile application development at SIBINTEKdigital cluster Natalia Dankovtseva, and «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» teachers Vadim Korotaev (Omsk) and Eldar Gurbanov (Volgograd).

Simon Song, President of Samsung Electronics headquarters in Russia and CIS countries

«This year Samsung Electronics celebrates its 50th anniversary, our «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» program celebrates its 5th anniversary, and I am very glad that the company has the opportunity to implement such long-term and successful projects in Russia. At the present stage, it is very important to invest in the education of their children, to invest in their ideas and today I am glad to see this trend in Russia. Among the graduates I see a generation that can make a significant contribution to the development of it», — commented Simon Sung, President and CEO Samsung Electronics CIS RHQ.

«»SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» is one of the successful initiatives aimed at opening of the potential of Russian youth. The active development of this program in the regions of the Russian Federation is in accordance with one of the main goals of the national program «Digital economy» – the elimination of digital inequality, the provision of equal opportunities for talented students in all regions of our country», — commented Leonid Levin. Chairman of State Parliament Duma Committee on IT & Telecom.

«An important element of training is the opportunity to learn from those who can share their experience. «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» helps students across Russia to learn the programming from experienced teachers and join the IT education system, which responds to one of the most priority goals for the development of the digital economy. Personnel education will improve the efficiency of services, production and implement global projects», — commented Nikolay Komlev, Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of IT & Digital Council.

«The platforms for additional development and education of pupils act as a powerful tool, which is capable to implement large-scale projects of students. Among such projects, I can mention «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL». A distinctive feature of this project is Samsung’s interest in the long-term development of the project. Today I am very glad to see students who show a decent high level of their knowledge,» – commented Arutyun Avetisyan Director of Institute of System Programming, Russian Academy of Science.

Dr. Jin Wook Lee, CEO of Samsung Research Russia and head of Samsung’s Artificial Intelligence Center in Moscow.

«I am confident that all global technological leaders should focus on education and development of young specialists’ practical skills. We, in Russian Association for Electronic Communications, have long ago come to understanding that human resources is what makes up the ‘oxygen’ for the ‘circulatory system’ of the digital economy. So, what we got to do is to implement the programs of specialists’ education, not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg but in all the regions of our country. It is great that Samsung Electronics stimulates the education of highly-qualified specialists for the sake of digital economy of Russia,» commented Sergey Plugotarenko, director of Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC).

«The path taken by the students of the «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» is very significant, and a huge step has already been made. I am very pleased that all graduates are inspired by their ideas and concepts, are determined to generate solutions and are drawn to research. We will continue to nurture their desire to become leaders in the chosen industry,» commented Ilya Kurilin, Chairman of the jury board, Samsung Research Russia.

Sergey Pevnev and Svetlana Yun

«In 2019, the federal educational program «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» celebrates its 5th anniversary. The program was launched in 2014 and is being implemented with the support of regional education departments and 18 of the country’s leading universities. Over the 5 years of work, 2849 graduates successfully completed the program. In April, an agreement was signed on the development of the «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» project within the framework of the federal program for digital education for children «IT-Cube», new partners-universities appeared, including Voronezh State University, Northeastern Federal University, Southern Federal University, Tyumen State University and other educational institutions. As a result, in the new 2019/2020 school year the «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» program will be available to students in 40 regions of Russia,» said Sergey Pevnev, director of corporate projects at Samsung Electronics CIS RHQ.

Samsung devotes its experience and human resources to creating innovative technologies and solutions making a contribution of society’s development. The company’s key priority in the social area is education. The company’s educational projects include «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» (since 2014), «Samsung IT Academy», the federal program for university students teaching them in areas of mobile app development, AI and IoT, «UchimZnaem» which gives children in hospitals an opportunity to keep studying school program. The company is also a partner of WorldSkills international competition, the finale of which will take place in Kazan this August. «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» will be opened in 340 centers of «IT-Cube».

In 2017 «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» was awarded the first place in the nomination «The best program for working with school students» of Graduate Awards. In addition, the educational program became the winner of the «Runet Prize» in the «Science and Education» nomination in 2016.

Applications for enrollment in «SAMSUNG IT SCHOOL» for the 2019-2020 academic year are being taken now. Details about the application procedure are available on the official website of the project.