Computer boffins off to Mexico

Two UCT students feature in the South African team to take part in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which is staged in Mexico this week. UCT's Keegan Carruthers-Smith and Max Rabkin join two other team members Ralf Kistner and Joshua Yudaken, plus two reserves, in the squad that will compete with young people from 80 other countries for gold, silver and bronze medals in computer programming at the event. The six were selected after their showing in the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad, which hosted more than 15 000 participants in the first round. Carruthers-Smith was in the national team that vied in the IOI in Poland last year, while Rabkin makes his IOI debut. The SA team went through their final preparations right here at UCT last week, under the guidance of team leader Donald Cook, student adviser in the Department of Computer Science at UCT, and deputy team leader (and MSc student at UCT) Graham Poulter, a past IOI participant and coach. Cook has been accompanying SA teams to the IOI since 1996.

Youth Seminar

The Students Representative Council, in partnership with the vice-chancellor and principal, Professor Njabulo S Ndebele, will host a seminar on August 14. The event will take place in Jameson Hall and start at 13h00. The theme of the seminar will be 100 Years of Student Leadership at UCT and aims to bring together students to reflect on the status and challenges of student leadership and their contributions to UCT and society at large. The keynote speaker will be Maxwell Fuzani, chief director of ministerial services in the Ministry of Education. Fuzani is a former SRC president at UCT.

Steve Biko memorial lecture

The date for the Steve Biko Memorial Lecture has been changed to September 26. Bishop Desmond Tutu will be the guest speaker at the event. The lecture will begin at 18h00. Further details of the event will be released in the coming weeks.