The team composed of Alberto Cavaleiro Pacheco, Gonçalo Paredes and Henrique Navas had already stood out at the Inter-University Programming Marathon (MIUP). A few months later the Técnico students showed their talent and effectiveness abroad, and won a bronze medal (8th place) at the Southwestern Europe Regional Contest (SWERC), held on 25th and 26th January.

“Each university can take three teams to SWERC. Our participation in MIUP was very important and it ended up being a determining factor in choosing the teams. If we hadn’t been the best Técnico team, we probably wouldn’t go”, says Henrique Navas.

The students competed with over 97 teams from Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland or Israel. “Many teams came from very good universities and they invest a lot in these competitions”, says Henrique Navas. The team overcame a difficult test that consisted of solving 12 programming problems in 5 hours. Técnico team managed to solve 8 problems.

According to Henrique Navas, “being well prepared for the competition and having a great team” contributed to the final results. The Técnico student also highlighted “being used to these competitions, facing the challenges, the difficulties and the pressure is quite important to achieve good results, so we were not particularly surprised by this bronze medal”.

Although this excellent result, the team will not compete in the finals. However, Henrique Navas stresses “each competition is a relevant experience for the future”. For the moment, it’s time to continue improving the team’s skills so that they bring the gold medal next time.