Talented students Daniel Jenks-Berryman and Harry Colliver from Warwick School were invited to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford on the weekend of 16–17 February as finalists in a UK-wide competition – The UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge.

Reaching the finals of the Intermediate (12–14) or Juniors (10–12) age groups is an impressive achievement, as a total of 161,146 students entered the first round in these age groups. Daniel and Harry were each among the top 60 highest achieving students invited to the final rounds in their respective age groups, and were presented with their finalist’s certificates at prize-giving ceremonies at Hertford College.

The UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, supported by Google, is designed to get students excited about computing and computational thinking. It is a problem-solving contest with questions inspired by topics in computer science. In the first round, held in their own schools, students have to try and solve as many problems as possible in the allotted time. There are six age categories. The highest scoring students from the four oldest age groups (Elite, Seniors, Intermediate, and Juniors) were then invited to the Department of Computer Science at Oxford for the finals over two weekends in February.

For more information, see bebras.uk or contact Kiri Walden, Communications Officer, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, kiri.walden@cs.ox.ac.uk, tel: 01865 610692.

Photos: Students from Warwick School receiving their finalist's certificates from Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, University of Oxford.