Contests#

I've been competing in different contests since the dawn of time, just for the sake of it. It is a fun and challenging activity that also provides a learning opportunity and plenty of new people to meet.

Most of the contests I've participated in can be found in my CV. Please note that this is not a complete list!

University contests#

These are the most recent contests that I've attended - and they are by far the most fun I've had competing!

Operating Systems Hackathon [2023]#

We are taught many subjects in university - however, the most beloved one (probablu considered the most hated one as well) is the Operating Systems course.

To prove that we truly understood the way processes, sockets and otherwise Linux components work together, we could participate in this hackathon in groups of 2. Alongside Matei-Ștefan Ionescu (@Matei77), we've decided to crush the competition!

We were tasked to create a server application that could answer clients' requests. Any client could request to load a specific application (.so) on the server. The communication would happend via IPv4 sockets (our implementation allowed for the simulation of the client-server model using UNIX sockets as well).

The whole program had to be as efficient as possible, so it was written in pure C. Logs were also a priority in our design, thus we've included advanced logging capabilities. The code was also able to self-analyze and detect high memory usage. Additional configurations could be made in a .txt file (format: option: value) - these include the maximum number of clients allowed and the maxium number of milliseconds a process was allowed to run.

The code has been tested rigurously and we made sure there were no memory leaks (or, at the very least, no memory leaks detected by Valgrind).

Matei (left) and I (right)

The both of us, having a laugh

The final result of our work was the 2nd place - and we were very proud of it!

I've competed alongside Matei-Ștefan Ionescu (@Matei77).

Perpetuum [2023]#

Perpetuum was a nice break from the usual university activities. We were supposed to build a robot that can shoot ping-pong balls into a basketball-like hoop.

This turned out to be quite a challenge - the biggest issue being the mass of the ball, which prevents it from going in a straight trajectory. Any small difference in the way we'd start the robot would influence the outcome of the run.

We didn't win anything in this competition, but we did build this cool crossbow:

The ping-pong ball crossbow

The ping-pong ball crossbow, loaded

I've competed alongside:

• Laura-Teodora Mișicu (@LoraPHP);

• Matei-Ștefan Ionescu (@Matei77).

You can read more about the event here (the article is in Romanian).

EESTEC (10th ed.) [2022]#

The 10th edition of EESTEC is the first edition in which I was personally envolved. There were two challenges, and I've competed in both.

More info about this event can be found here.

Main challenge#

TODO - short description, photos etc.

I've competed alongside Vlad Negoiță (@VladNegoita) and Anca-Elena Negoiță.

Side challenge#

TODO - short description, photos etc.

Final result: 2nd place.

I've competed alongside Matei Hriscu (@matthriscu) and Anca-Elena Negoiță.

Baliza [2022]#

TODO - short description, photos etc.

The project I've submited can be found here.

High school contests#

I was always interested to compete with my friends and colleagues - this was beneficial to everybody, since this created a safe-space which encouraged growth and ambition.

Out of all the contests I've been involved in, here are a selected few:

Olympiads in Informatics#

Back in high-school, I've competed in many olympiads, most of them being focused on informatics (more specifically, algorithms).

Usually, we were tasked with 2-3 problems (3-4h) and we were graded based on the number of tests our solutions would pass.

Until 9th grade, I had never qualified for a national level olympiad; however, everything changed once I've set myself the goal to get a medal - and so I did! I returned home with the bronze medal and a great story to tell.

MateInfoUB#

Back in 12th grade, a competition called MateInfoUB was meant to help talented students enter university (FMI UniBuc) without taking any other exam.

You could compete in both mathematics and informatics - and so I did and achieved 1st prize in informatics and 3rd prize in mathematics!

First Tech Challenge#

The FTC competitions were great fun and helped me better understand robotics and develop a passion for engineering.

We've won a few awards over the years, including 2020's Innovation Award (3rd place), 2019's Think Award (3rd place) and 2019's design award (3rd place).

However, it was never about the results themselves - it was about being a team and working together towards some common value.

There were many people involved and I cannot mention them all, but here is a summary including the members I've teamed up the most amount of time:

• Our informatics teacher, Sorana Rădulescu;

• Our mentor, Cătălin Nicolescu;

• Eduard-Alexandru Sandu;

• Laura-Teodora Mișicu (@LoraPHP);

• Matei-Ștefan Ionescu (@Matei77).

Self-organized contests#

Not many people know this, but I have actually held a few competitions myself, such as Wi's Chess Competition and Wi's GameJam.

Of course, these were small events meant to entertain myself and my friends, but they turned out quite instructive.

Wi's Chess Competition#

TODO - short description, photos etc.

Wi's GameJam#

TODO - short description, photos etc.

Wi-Math (08/06/2021)#

This was a math mock-up contest designed to help some of my friends better grasp the concepts required to enter my university.

Here are the contest documents (written in Romanian):

• The subjects themselves;

• The solutions proposed (excluding the geometry problem).