Basic information
My name is Michal Forišek.
(TeX notation: Fori\v{s}ek; English transliteration: Forisek.)
Education
-
2009: PhD in theoretical computer science
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia -
2004: Mgr. (Master's degree) in computer science
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia - 1999: finished studies at Gymnazium Poprad, Popradske nabr. 15
- 1995: finished studies at Primary school at Ulica Mladeze, Poprad
Achievements
I took part in various international contests in mathematics and informatics, some of my best results follow:
- ACM ICPC: GOLD medal (4th place) at the World Finals 2002/03, Hollywood, USA (in a team with Richard Kralovic and Jan Oravec).
- IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics): two GOLD medals (Portugal 1998, Turkey 1999).
- Google: CodeJam World Finalist in 2012 (best placement: 3rd in the world), 2011 (5th), 2009 (18th), 2006 (10th), 2005; HashCode World Finalist 2020 (17th, 4-person team).
- TopCoder: #1 rated coder in the world in 2006, finalist at TCO 2006 (5th in the world), TCO 2005 (3rd in the world), TCCC 2005 (4th).
- IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad): a bronze medal (Romania 1999).
Other notable achievements:
- A book published by Springer: Michal Forišek and Monika Steinová – Explaining Algorithms Using Metaphors.
- Quora Top Writer in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Teaching experience
- Invited lectures at ETH Zurich and international programming camps in Brazil, Czech Republic, Peru, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Slovakia.
- Full-time lecturer at Comenius University (courses: Competitive programming since 2005, Year-long project since 2006, Computability since 2009, Algorithms and data structures since 2010).
- Previously a teaching assistant (courses: Formal languages and automata, Unix for administrators) and secondary school teacher (computer science for selected students at GAMČA Bratislava).
- Between 2007 and 2014: thesis advisor for 11 Master's theses and 23 Bachelor's theses, all defended successfully.
- Coach of an ACM ICPC team that won a medal at the ICPC World Finals 2014.
Employment
Currently I have a full-time position at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
Languages
- native Slovak and Czech
- fluent English
- upper intermediate German
- beginner French, Polish, can read Russian
Areas of Interest
In years 2006-2013 and 2014-2017 I was a member (and in 2008-2012 the chair) of the International Scientific Committee which is responsible for the scientific side of the International Olympiad in Informatics, including the competition tasks.
In 2002 and 2010 I was the head of the Scientific Committee and in 2019 I was the head of the Organizing Committee (i.e., of the whole competition) for the Central European Olympiad in Informatics.
Since 2000 I'm one of the organizers of the Internet Problem Solving Contest (IPSC), one of the most influential online programming contests.
I'm the deputy chair of the Slovak Olympiad in Informatics and the chair of its scientific committee. Since 1999 I've been organizing the national Olympiad, and also other national competitions in programming and mathematics, in particular the Correspondence Seminar in Programming. I also helped to organize various (mostly mathematic and informatic) contests and preparation camps for primary and secondary school students.
I'm also interested in theoretical computer science, mostly in the areas of hard problems, formal languages theory, graph theory (and more generally combinatorics) and efficient algorithms.
Contact and miscellaneous information
e-mail: misof[at]ksp.sk
snail-mail: Michal Forisek, Zlta 13A, 851 07 Bratislava, Slovakia
Last updated 2020-02-25.