Prologin wins a prize at the Google RISE Awards
With its RISE Awards, Google has acknowledged the work carried out by Prologin, an EPITA association which strives to promote programming with young people.
Given out once a year, the Google RISE Awards were created to promote and support initiatives in the field of education aimed at strengthening the interest of students for science and technology and for IT. For the 2014 edition, the American giant has just awarded over thirty virtual statues to organisations from all over the world who share this enthusiasm for openness. And for the first time in the history of the RISE Awards, a French organisation has just been rewarded: EPITA association Prologin, which organises a programming competition to help young people passionate about IT to meet and compete together. Antoine Pietri (EPITA graduate 2016), head of the association, has not yet got out the champagne bottles but is already immensely delighted by the recent news: “When we heard that Google was organising these awards, we thought it would be a great opportunity. Prologin’s activities are fully in line with their programme for the promotion of IT among young people. That’s what we enjoy doing and we are happy for this token of recognition!”
20,000 dollars for a good cause
In addition to having their name added to the list of prize-winners, Prologin will receive 20,000 dollars from Google. This money is a godsend for the association. “We’re going to use some of the money for communication purposes to make the competition better known, said Antoine. In particular, we’d like more girls to be interested. That’s one of our aims and if this money can help us do it, that’d be great!” The rest of the money will be used to strengthen the association’s technical equipment: “Usually, our budget is restricted and is not enough for us to organise the competition and make big investments at the same time, by buying servers or computers for instance. We’re probably going to use the money for this purpose.” This bodes well for the future of the competition, in which hundreds of enthusiasts from all over France take part.
About Prologin
Prologin has been organising each year since 1991 the National IT competition. This competition aims at encouraging young people under the age of 20 to learn to program. It is based on three steps: a multiple-choice selection questionnaire, semi-finals throughout France and a big final at EPITA in Paris, during which the one hundred best participants compete. The competition is organised in partnership with students from Polytechnique and UPMC.
Find out more: http://www.prologin.org