Exeter School pupils in national computing competition finals

Talented Exeter School pupils Albert Hughes and Tom Bracey were invited to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford on Sunday 11 February as finalists in a UK-wide computing competition - the UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge.

Reaching the final of the Junior age group is an impressive achievement, as 41,372 students entered the first round for the age group (10-12). Albert and Tom were among the top 60 highest achieving pupils invited to the final round in their age group, and were presented with their finalist's certificates at a prize giving ceremony at Hertford College.

The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, supported by Google, is designed to get pupils excited about computing and computational thinking. It is a problem-solving contest with questions inspired by topics in computer science. In the first round, held in their own schools, pupils have to try and solve as many problems as possible in the allotted time. There are six age categories. The highest scoring pupils from the four oldest age groups (Elite, Senior, Intermediate, and Junior) were then invited to the Department of Computer Science at Oxford for the finals over two weekends in January and February.

"Both boys will be taking part in the Oxford Computing Challenge in the week beginning 12 March," said Head of Computer Science Alice Pinches. "Only the highest 10% of scorers from the Bebras Challenge are invited to take part in this online programming competition and our 55 entrants have begun their practice already."

Pictured: Albert Hughes and Tom Bracey receiving their final round certificates from Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, University of Oxford.