On November 11, for the first time ever, Bangladesh hosted the World Finals for the 45th edition of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) powered by Huawei, one of the most prestigious international contests for solving computer programming problems for university-level students.
Around 1,000 undergrads, from 137 universities, starting from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the University of Dhaka participated in the wonderful congregation aimed to advance humanity with their coding skills.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the finals of this year's ICPC with a total score of 11, among university students from 69 countries, while BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) ranked 51st overall in the world.
CourtesyAccording to the Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, the contest, more than the problems it solves, is indeed a genuine acknowledgement of a new Bangladesh and its many new capabilities - where digitalization is embedded into state policies and priority actions to enable the creation of a thriving digital world with easy, accessible and equitable solutions for all.
ICT Division State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak also believes that programming is the language of the future as it can help bridge the gap between cultures, languages and societies- through the various technological innovations that can be seen in the world today.
CourtesyProgrammers are seen as the problem solvers of tomorrow and Bangladesh, as one of the fastest-growing economies in South Asia, has progressed significantly in all sectors by utilizing ICT.
Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy recently also announced the aim of building a cashless society in Bangladesh within the next three or four years riding on the growth of digital financing in the country
“We have built digital Bangladesh now. Our next target is to build a cashless society,” Sajeeb Wazed Joy, a key driver of Digital Bangladesh said, citing that 50% of the government services have already been brought under digitization, and hopefully this will be raised to 100% within a few years.
More than 170 countries, just like Bangladesh have announced digital strategies, and digital transformation is now known to be the key to improving economies and the lives of millions across the globe, as well as ensuring the sustenance of the planet.
It is a key focus for industries including ICT, finance, manufacturing and agriculture.
The emergence of a digital first world requires countries to prepare for a digital first economy, and economies across the globe are developing digital plans and policies, investing in key digital technology sectors and ICT infrastructure to rebuild/realize a new enlarged GDP, just like Bangladesh.
However, talent shortage will be one of the biggest concerns of the world with the World Bank forecasting a talent deficit of 10 million people by 2027 against the driving need for increasingly rapid pace of digital transformation worldwide.
The talent shortage is most pronounced in Asia but is also a concern internationally for the ICT community, governments, employers and workers.
Adding to the issue is a gap in the education of ICT professionals that means their skills don't meet industry standards. This has resulted in a lack of talent to fill roles and placed pressure on the existing workforce.
“The emergence of companies like Walton that develops technology locally has created the demand for a skilled workforce, but there is an industry-academia gap among the graduates of academic institutions,” the Vice-Chancellor of University of Asia Pacific (UAP) and Director of ICPC World Finals Dhaka Prof Dr Qumrul Ahsan told Dhaka Tribune.
According to the International Labor Organization, the “lack of skilled labor will constrain future growth and job creation in the sector, but with the right policies in place, the digital economy could make a significant contribution to advancing decent work and inclusive economic growth at global, regional and national levels.”
This is where market leaders of the technology sector, like that of Huawei, come in.
Impact
At the forefront of digital transformation, Huawei understands delivery standards are only as good as the talent executing and that the requisite staff numbers are voluminous.
The leading global ICT company also knows the importance of nurturing talent and has been working globally including in Bangladesh, to develop a talent ecosystem in dynamic ways that addresses the skilled labor shortage, the education gap, and the needs of ICT professionals.
Huawei supports establishing a talent ecosystem by sponsoring the world's top contests such as ICPC, IMO, ICHO, IMC etc . ICPC contest proposes high-quality world problems and challenges, broadening the horizons of the competition students, and identifying and cultivating top talents
Top players and talents are helped by Huawei to achieve their individual fulfillment for the future through the participation of the industry in discipline design, school-enterprise joint training, science and technology competitions and other all-round and multi-level discovery and cultivation of high-level talents.
For instance, before the s final contest this year, students were shown a presentation by Huawei titled “Road to Intelligence”, a tech talk that garnered massive interest from the students.
Total of 126 teams and 39 coaches have successfully submitted their solutions for this Challenge.
In 2021, Huawei invested more than $375 million in university cooperation, cooperating with more than 300 universities and more than 900 research institutions around the world.
Over the last two years, Huawei has hired about 26,000 fresh graduates, over 300 of whom were from our "top minds" program. It will continue bringing in outstanding people – they are key to helping overcome the challenges we face.
Huawei's end to end talent development solution has been built hand in hand with government and industry bodies to facilitate career path development for individuals and promote digital transformation.
Huawei ICT Academy, another program now trains more than 150,000 students annually in collaboration with around 2,000 universities and colleges in over 100 countries., providing coursework and practical training in disciplines such as routing and switching, storage, cloud, WLAN, cloud computing, and big data as well as next generation technologies including IoT, big data and cloud computing.
More than 2000 Huawei ICT Academies have been set up, and over 17,000 students have passed Huawei's certifications.
As part of its mission to bridge this gap and promote sustainable social development, Huawei provides a talent development system through 120 authorized learning partners.
Each year, 85,000 trainees are Huawei certified to help upskill the public in digital technology. More than 17,000 have entered the global job market as Huawei Certified ICT Expert (HCIE) since the commencement of the certification system.
Huawei's annual ICT competitions are an integral part of the talent cultivation lifecycle, providing aspiring ICT professionals with exposure to industry best practices and trends.
ICT Academy students who complete their training and go to internships are eligible to participate in the ICT competitions where the brightest minds compete to create innovative digital applications and products.
Huawei also offers its Seeds for the Future program to STEM students, who go to the company's Chinese headquarters to study leading-edge ICT technology in a cross-cultural setting.
Huawei will continue building this ICT talent ecosystem with a target of training more than 1 million ICT professionals and experts by 2024, working with governments, industry organizations, and universities to develop a global future-ready workforce that creates new value for the industry.
At the end of 2021, Huawei had over 195,000 employees working in more than 170 countries and regions. Huawei ranked as the world's 8th best employer in 2021 according to Forbes.
CourtesyOwnership
“Huawei is committed to create opportunities for the next generation of problem solvers as they explore challenging subject areas that advance science and technology and propel industry to meet the needs of tomorrow,” Vicky Zhang, the vice-president of Corporate Communications at Huawei said.
He said that Huawei's mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
“To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks to lay the foundation for the intelligent world; provide diversified computing power to deliver ubiquitous cloud and intelligence; build powerful digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, offering consumers a more personalized and intelligent experience across all scenarios, including home, travel, office, entertainment, and fitness & health.
“In the next decade, information technology will increase 100 times. People and society will accelerate digital development, and connected intelligent machines will be everywhere.
“We believe the tech-savvy and change-resilient young talent deserve every opportunity to succeed in the future, the seeds of which need to be incepted now,” Zhang said.