OREANDA-NEWS  On 20 October was announced, that six teams of high school students and six teams of university students won the right to take part in the finals of the IT Olympiad that is being organised by Lattelecom Technology in partnership with Swedbank and Microsoft. The finals will take place on October 24 and 25 at the central headquarters of Swedbank.
 
The best results in the qualifications round for high school students were achieved by four teams from the Riga No. 1 State Gymnasium – unsignedDev, inIT, 1337, and AltF4 – along with the KAZli team from the Riga No. 40 High School, and the VVG team from the Valmiera State Gymnasium.

In the category for university students, fully five of the slots in the finals will be occupied by teams from the University of Latvia – LED, Z=GS, CuKrLo, Team 1, and hmm. They will be joined by the El Rava team from the Ventspils University College.
 
During the finals, teams will have to deal with programming assignments of various degrees of difficulty. These have been designed to be as close as possible to the everyday work of software programmers.
 
The semi-finals attracted 37 teams from high schools and universities this year. The IT Olympiad is being held for the third year in a row, and 34 teams took part last year. The winners were the RAM team from the University of Latvia, and the LED team from the Riga No. 1 State Gymnasium.

Lattelecom Technology and its partners organise the events so as to increase interest among young people in programming, as well as to develop teamwork skills and the ability of students to prove themselves.
 
The organisers
 
Lattelecom Technology is part of the Lattelecom Group and is the leading provider of integrated IT solutions and services in Latvia. Competence and experience in the markets of the Baltic States allow Lattelecom Technology to offer various software products, as well as the design and implementation of specialised IT solutions that are developed specifically for the client’s needs.
 
Swedbank (known as Hansabanka until September 2008) is Latvia’s leading commercial bank, part of the global financial corporation Swedbank. Innovations are of key importance to Swedbank, which is why the bank devotes so much attention to various educational and developmental opportunities.
 
Microsoft Latvia was established in 1999 as Microsoft’s representative in the Baltic States. Microsoft established a presence in Estonia and Lithuania in 2003, and that allowed Microsoft Latvia to focus far more intensively on the local market and situation. Today Microsoft Latvia employs more than 50 people to offer partner support, design of services and solutions, as well as marketing campaigns.