Barton Peveril’s Computing Champion wins the @BebrasUK Computational Thinking Challenge

Barton Peveril Sixth Form College student Patrick Winter has won The UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, held at the University of Oxford. Patrick came first out of 6,415 initial entrants in his age group (16-18), which is an improvement on his third place finish in the competition last year.

The first round of the competition is held in entrants’ own schools, with students having to try and solve as many problems as possible in the allotted time. The highest scoring students 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 February. Patrick achieved first place among the top 60 entrants in his age group, who were invited to compete in the final round after a successful first round, and was presented with his finalist’s certificate and medal at a prize-giving ceremony at Hertford College.

Patrick has also recently celebrated his offer to study Mathematics at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College.

Barton Peveril Teacher of Computer Science, Isabel Culmer, praised Patrick on his success:

Patrick spoke highly of the competition: “The challenge was tough but stimulating and I am thrilled to have placed on the podium for the second year in a row! The time pressure is intense as you are deliberately given more problems than they expect you to be able to solve. Attending the finals is a great experience as there are so many like-minded people there, including a fair few I recognise from last year!”