Programming, their love and passion

Promee, Noshin and Richita are students of Jahangirnagar University (JU). The outshining girls' trio has a common identity--they are lovers of programming. Recently they took part in a programming contest titled 'National Girls Programming Contest-2018' held on Daffodil International University (DIU) campus and sealed the title.  The name of their team was 'JU Jabian'.

A total of 103 teams of female programmers from different universities including Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka University and Islamic University of Technology (IUT) took part in this competition.  The final round of this contest was held on October 22 on DIU campus. A team of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) and a team of Chittagong University (CU) scored first and second runner-up position respectively.

Sabera Mahmud Promee, the leader of the champion team 'JU Jabian' and also a fourth-year student of Institute of Information Technology (IIT) of Jahangirnagar University (JU), was telling about the recent success story of being the champion of the contest. 'Onset of this year we had completed a programming contest scoring as first runner-up position. That was inspiring for our team and we got the confidence that we can. Then propelling a long rough way we prepared ourselves for this contest and finally, all of our efforts were paid off and we hauled the pride of being champion'.

The journey of her programming career was not smooth. When she started programming in 2015, there was not a single example of girl programmers who would continue programming around her. Keeping courage in heart she went forward and started participating in different programming contest from the middle of last year. National Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC) held at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) campus, National Girls Programming Contest (NGPC), and Inter-University Girls Programming Contest (IUGPC) held at North South University campus are mentionable wherein she took part and showed her excellence.

“The two keywords--persistency and consistency--I had learnt from my university senior programmers at the very onset of my university life. The commonly heard discouraging bizarre words 'programming is not girls' business' would dishearten me  sometimes but I did not leave programming as my other seniors and friends did. Having many obstacles in my long venture, some of my course instructors and seniors never let me be down,” Sabera expressed gratitude to her pioneers. 

Richita Khondokar, another member of the champion team, is pursuing programming since she was the student of higher secondary and learnt to cherish a dream of being a programmer at very early age of her life. She was inspired by a close relative to be a programmer who is now working as a software engineer in a multinational company and she got a chance in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department. 'This is called passion and position concordance', she defined her luck.

Mir Noshin Jahan is known as 'quiet and brilliant' to her friends. She is a third-year student of Institute of Information Technology (IIT) of JU and also a vibrant member of the winning team. She is introduced now as a programmer at everywhere she goes but her ambition was quite different. She sat for medical admission test, although having good preparation she missed the scope to be a doctor but she got chance here on the evergreen campus. Admitting herself in this campus she got some good friends. She kicked off her life with passions and dreams and started programming from the very beginning of the university life in 2016. She started to proof her brilliancy within a very short span of time. Seeing her outstanding performance in programming, the team leader of 'JU Jabian' Sabera proposed her to work with her and from there the joint venture of them led a mentionable number of success stories.

The champion girls could solve a total of seven out of the given ten problems in the event. The contest was followed by rules and regulations of International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) under the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The instructor of the champion team, Kazi Sohan, hailing the winning girls remarked this victory as the triumph of each and every member of the JU family. 

Congratulating the winning team JU VC Professor Farzana Islam, the first female vice-chancellor of Bangladesh, said, 'In today's world girls are no more lagging behind. They are sealing all the critical positions of the world gradually. They are proving themselves in all spheres of life. We all also dream for making that nation where all will be treated equally, where male and female both will work only for making Bangladesh as a developed nation, then we will be able to clinch many more victories like this one.'

The writer is a student of Department of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University,

he can be reached at [email protected]