Around 58,000 children and young people throughout Austria took part in the last Informatik Biber, which is organized annually by the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) in cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology. Of these, 216 pupils achieved the full number of points. These best participants in the 2023 international competition were warmly welcomed by the Dean of Computer Science, Prof. Gerti Kappel, at a ceremony at TU Wien on Monday. 144 students from all over Austria, together with their parents and teachers, attended the award ceremony in the domed hall of TU Wien. More than 380 schools took part in the competition.

The list of winners who were present at the event can be found in the press release.

Big celebration at TU Wien

"I am delighted with the great success of our school competition. The enormous increase in the number of participants by 30 percent compared to the previous year also clearly shows the need for a stronger anchoring of computer science as a subject in the school curriculum. Computer science education is particularly important for a successful future for our young people. That is why the OCG is actively campaigning for the establishment of computer science as a school-leaving examination subject," said OCG President Thomas Mück, opening the event.

Concrats by Minister of Education

In a video message, Federal Minister Martin Polaschek congratulated the winners, aged between 8 and 18, on their top performances and praised the opportunity to train computer science thinking in a playful and low-threshold way with the Biber der Informatik and to promote problem-solving skills, logical thinking and creativity.

"With this entry-level competition, we want to awaken joy and interest in computer science in children and young people," explained Prof. Gerald Futschek (TU Vienna), the "father" of the Computer Science Beaver in Austria. According to Futschek, this can lay the foundation for a later career in the field of computer science, which is so important today. Futschek presented the certificates together with OCG Secretary General Ronald Bieber.

"The fact that more and more pupils take part in the OCG Biber der Informatik competition every year shows that computer science has arrived in Austria's schools. I would like to congratulate today's winners and wish them lots of fun learning computer science in the future," said Bieber.

Mehr Informationen zum Biber der Informatik.

Zu allen Event-Fotos.