On Saturday 12th May if you had been at Belgrade’s main train station you would have seen two teachers and two students from BIS board the overnight train heading for Bucharest. We were off to the 5th InfoMatrix International Computer Exhibition/Competition [www.infomatrix.ro]. Thirteen hours later we gratefully descended from the sleeping carriage (not having had too much sleep) but eager to get things ready for the public and the judges to view the students work on Monday and Tuesday.
Alongside students from as far afield as Mexico, South Africa and Mongolia we set up a professional display at the prestigious Law Department building of Bucharest University, along with the other twenty stands competing in the High School Computer Art section, and around eighty stands altogether.
The BIS students, Alex and Dejan, had produced for the competition a 3D project in Maya entitled “Interior”, depicting the inside of an apartment they had once seen in Tunisia. Whilst this work looked simple, to make it look simple had taken many months of hard work in the after-school Maya club BIS runs.
From 9 until 6 on Monday and Tuesday our students had a stream of both school and university students as well as other members of the public coming to talk to them about their work. During this time they also had Computer Art judges; all professionals in this field visit them to assess the quality of their stand.
Just before lunch on Tuesday the two students were summoned for a viva with the judges. They first showed a one-minute film of their work created whilst they were preparing things at BIS, followed by a five minute live demonstration of how they created their scene, and then five minutes of questioning by the judges. At the end the students were relieved to get to lunch!
On the Wednesday in the modern central hall of the Law Department the Rector of the Bucharest University honoured the BIS students by presenting them with Silver Medals for their work. An excellent achievement for our students.
We survived the train journey home and the following day in a special assembly all the students at BIS congratulated Alex and Dejan on their wonderful achievement.
It must be said that the organisation and hospitality that the Lumina Education group (running the International School of Bucharest [www.isb.ro] and the International Computer High School of Bucharest [www.ichb.ro]) showed us was exemplary and we look forward to participating in this event in the future.
