A student of La Salle-URL wins an international programming contest

Daniel Vea, student of the degree of Engineering in Electronics at La Salle Campus Barcelona-URL won a first prize of the contest Intel Modern Code Developer Challenge organized by CERN and Intel. More than 1,000 students from all around the world have participated in the contest. Based on the papers presented, a winner, 3 first prizes and 3 second prizes were decided. Daniel Vea won a first prize and the award is a guided tour at CERN in Geneva, and 3,300 euros for the trip. The aim of the competition was to optimize a code that simulated the development of brain cells. The challenge for the contestants was to reduce the execution time of the program to help study neurological diseases more quickly. A professor of Newcastle University developed the original code with a running time of about 45 hours. Daniel Vea managed to reduce the time to 11 minutes, a result that led him to occupy one of the first places in the ranking. The 'Grand Prize' was for Mathieu Gravey, a French student of 25 who can take an internship at CERN Openlab. The evaluation by the jury was based on the execution time of each code and, in case of a tie, in its originality and simplicity. The function of the program will serve to advance in the understanding of the brain tissue mechanisms of development that range from genetics to spatial and temporal factors. In this regard, it will help to identify the causes and possible treatments for neurodevelopmental diseases such as epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia. Through this competition, Daniel has had the opportunity to meet industry professionals and has received an offer to study for a doctorate at the University of Newcastle in England, where the University teacher and creator of the original code teaches.