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FILIPINO
Niño Rey Ronda bested more than a hundred computer
programmers worldwide who vied for TopCoder Inc.’s
contest for software developers.
Ronda
took the $15,000 (P0.63 million) purse for the graphics
design track as he competed against 119 programming
athletes for championship in the Algorithm, Design,
Development, Studio Design and marathon match events of
the 2008 TopCoder Open at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas
last week.
Ronda,
who lists his address in the Philippines as Greenpark
Village, Cainta, Pasig City, ranked among champions from
Poland, the United States and Brazil.
The
Marathon Match’s $15,000 prize went to Przemyslaw Debiak
of Poland.
Ronda,
tagged as a graphic designer in his flickr web site, was
also the TopCoder Studio Graphic Design winner, after
beating two competitors from Indonesia.
Ronda’s
winning Studio submission designed the entire front-end
application for Lending Tree LLC, an online loan
marketplace connecting a network of lenders.
The 2008
TopCoder Open (TCO) is a worldwide programming
tournament open to all TopCoder members 18 years and
older.
“Taking
part in the 2008 TCO gives you the opportunity to
showcase your programming or design skills up against
some of the best in the world,” the company’s website
said.
In an
interview at the website, Ronda said he joined TopCoder
two years ago and was “amazed by the competition and the
prizes.”
He was
chosen TopCoder Studio Designer of the Month in February
this year for an entry that he submitted despite
“juggling a regular eight-hour job.”
When
asked what sights there are to see and what food there
are to taste in the Philippines, Ronda cited “beach
resorts like Boracay, Pagudpod, El Nido and pork adobo
and balut.”
Ronda
credits his family for his progress into the
competition.
He
advises graphic designers who are just starting out to
“love what you do, never give up joining every contest.”
He
advised them to “be proud with every single design you
make. Give time working with it and do your best shot in
every design you’re creating. Never feel desperate if
you are not winning. Push yourself for more.”
TopCoder
claims it is the world’s largest competitive software
development community with over 150,000 developers
representing over 200 countries.
Jack
Hughes, cofounder of web design firm Tallán Inc.,
founded the Glastonbury, Connecticut-headquartered
TopCoder eight years ago “on the premise that talent and
skill are the determinant factors in the quality and
utility of software—and software has become central to
the global economy.”
Software
programming is a high-level skill that has yet to be
acquired by majority of Filipino students and workers,
according to the science and technology department.
Billy
Pucyutan of the Advanced Science and Technology
Institute of the Department of Science and Technology
cited this as a gap.
This
gap, he said, is “the lack of capability to produce
advanced, locally developed and branded software that
can be marketed internationally.”
In 2004,
another Filipino named Celsus Lumibaw Kintanar, was also
reported to have been chosen as a finalist in the
TopCoder contest. |
