On November 5, an international online programming olympiad was held for the first time at the Lu Ban Workshop in Turkmenistan, bringing together students from four oil and gas universities in Turkmenistan and China. The competition involved representatives of the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International University of Oil and Gas, China University of Petroleum, Xi'an Shiyou University and Hebei Petroleum University, the news agency «Turkmenistan: Golden Age» reports.

The competition was organised as part of cooperation established through memoranda of understanding between the Turkmen university and three educational institutions in China.

The olympiad was made possible by the establishment of Turkmenistan's first Lu Ban Workshop at the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International University of Oil and Gas in April this year. The workshop aims to improve professional training for specialists in the country's oil and gas sector.

The opening ceremony of the international intellectual competition took place in the university's main assembly hall. Representatives of the management, faculty members and students from all four higher education institutions attended the event.

The heads of the participating universities delivered welcoming remarks, wishing the contestants success in completing the tasks, demonstrating their knowledge and achieving high results.

A total of 120 students from Turkmenistan and China competed for top honours. The olympiad programme featured challenging tasks covering various areas of computer science, including data processing and analysis, artificial intelligence technologies and cybersecurity.

According to the competition results, students from the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International University of Oil and Gas were among the prize-winners. Representatives of the Chinese universities also performed successfully, demonstrating a high level of preparation and securing prize-winning places.

The winners were determined separately in the individual and team categories. A specialised national software platform developed by the Turkmen university was used to process the results.

Participants and teams with the highest scores received first-, second- and third-degree diplomas.

The first international online olympiad marked a new stage in the development of partnerships between educational institutions in Turkmenistan and China. The competition also gave students an opportunity to test their knowledge of digital technologies, exchange experience and demonstrate their ability to solve complex technical problems.

The event reaffirmed the interest of both countries in further strengthening ties in higher education, science and the training of qualified personnel for the oil and gas industry.