Olympiad in computer science and discrete mathematics

Abstract

Many ideas of theoretical computer science is not yet included in the practice of school teaching. To test the methods of learning new ideas one can use the format of school Olympiads which form a circle of ideas and objectives which can be included in the future general curriculum. The paper describes the experience of the Olympiad on theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics. The Olympiad consist of two rounds. The first round is held in a distant form but the second one is held on the premises of universities. All the rounds are organized in an electronic format and all the participants work with same manipulators which simulates important concepts or ideas of subject area. Thus, to the last round of Olympiad, all participants already will be acquainted with new ideas of subject area and during the time limit can solve more difficult problems. As examples we discuss here tasks of DM&TI-2015. They are based on five manipulators: Turing machines, regular expressions, graphs, Tarski worlds (predicates and quantifiers) and logic circuits. The paper suggest a technics for problems design and using of manipulators for solving problems in computer science and discrete mathematics and technology for semiautomatic processing of results. The Olympiad uses web services that provide users feedback and interaction of authors and participants with problems during preparing and holding of the Olympiad.