This was the 10th edition of the “Summer on the Campus” programme of the University of Minho and all 24 vacancies available for this activity were filled up.

Each year, for one week, Computation Without Borders aims to introduce secondary school students to problem analysis, abstract modelling and algorithmic solutions. Students try to program a computer to solve complex problems while they get to know the training programmes available at the Department of Informatics of the University of Minho.

Participants coming from various secondary schools of the north and south of the country had the opportunity to learn how to use mechanical calculators from the 1950s and 1960s and to check how these were converted into software. In addition, students were faced with a number of increasingly complex problems, such as simulating gravitational laws in physics and solving the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, which they had to implement in the Haskell programming language.

The areas of ​​Cryptography, Distributed Computing and Robotics were also addressed in this activity through practical tasks. Finally, the students had the opportunity to check the interfaces and models of medical devices through practical examples of infusion pumps.