These days, Francis José Rodríguez Ronda, a student at the Luis Urquiza Jorge Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences (IPVCE by its acronym in Spanish), is both satisfied and challenged. He won an Honorable Mention in the Ibero-American Computer Sciences Olympiad, an annual competition that tests the ingenuity and skill of young programming talents.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- After arduous preparation at her school and at the National Training Center, her participation was an opportunity to demonstrate the skills she had acquired.

"We were presented with different types of problems in which we had to apply data structure, dynamic programming, and graph theory," explains the young man who lives in the municipality of Jesús Menéndez and wants to study Computer Science.

During the competition, the participants solved a total of four algorithmic problems in a maximum of five hours.
"In the field of study, this knowledge is very useful because it develops logic and reasoning, and from the point of view of mathematics, I have advanced my knowledge at university, while in practical life it helps me to see problems differently, to find solutions and different approaches to each issue", says Francis José.

Roger Peña Pérez, a twelfth-grade student at the academic institution who won a silver medal in the competition, also felt the same emotions. His outstanding performance and dedication in this competition are a testimony to his perseverance and talent, as well as to the results of the Greater of the Antilles, for more than five decades, in this type of event.

To promote the development of this discipline, which is the basis of technological progress in the era of artificial intelligence, the Olympiad was attended by 14 countries in the region, including Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Portugal and Cuba, which was well represented by these students.