Queensland Informatics & Programming Club
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Last updated: 2 March 2017
QIP is back for 2017!
We will run on Tuesday afternoons during first semester, from Tuesday March 7 until Tuesday June 6, with a break over Easter (April 18).
We may also have some one-off sessions during second semester for
people who want to prepare for the Australian Informatics Olympiad
(which runs in early September).
Welcome!
Welcome to QIP, the Queensland Informatics and Programming club!
QIP is a weekly afternoon get-together of high school students from
around Brisbane with an interest in computer programming and algorithms.
We meet at the
University of Queensland
(St Lucia) on Tuesday afternoons from 4–6pm, in room 67-542 (67
is the Priestley building, not far from the Chancellor's Place bus stop).
The first session for 2017 will be held on Tuesday March 7.
QIP is a part of the Australian Informatics Olympiad programme. Other activities in the national programme include:
There is no cost for joining QIP.
The club is organised by Prof. Benjamin Burton from the UQ School of Mathematics and Physics. Ben has been involved in the national Olympiad programme for two decades, and was its inaugural academic director from 1999–2008. He currently serves as an elected member of the International Committee that oversees the International Olympiad in Informatics.
The afternoon meetings involve a mix of computer programming
in laboratories, and learning from university students and staff.
The programme is very hands-on: you will spend much of your time at the
keyboard, writing your own code.
We will work on the kinds of challenges that are posed in the Australian Informatics Olympiad (AIO). These involve both programming and problem solving—the aim is not just to write any program that solves a problem, but to write one that is fast and correct. See the training site for some past AIO problems.
Of course, if you plan to enter the AIO yourself then QIP is an excellent place to practice for that. The AIO is typically held in early September, and it forms the first round of entry for the national Informatics Olympiad programme. See here for details.
Do I need to be able to program?
Some familiarity with a programming language will definitely help. If you are not confident with programming then don't worry; there will be plenty of tutors around to help.
If you are looking to learn a programming language, we suggest Python—there are good tutorials available on the web (e.g., here and here).
If you already know some other language then this is excellent, and you are welcome to use that (as long as we can support it in the labs). Send Ben an email (at the address below) if you have any questions.
Here we will post notes, solutions and other resources that come up during the weekly sessions:
First of all, please mail Ben Burton at bab at maths.uq.edu.au to indicate your interest. You should also register for the national online training site (this is of course free). The training site allows you to submit your programs for automated testing, and we will use this site extensively during the weekly sessions.
You will need consent forms before you can access external websites from the labs (such as the online training site), and you will need to get these forms to us well in advance (not on the day). We will send you details after you email us.
We hope to see you there on Tuesday afternoons!
UQ School of Mathematics and Physics
Australian Mathematics Trust
Benjamin Burton's home page