A group of students from Peking University (Beida) grabbed the top award of 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) in a national network and computer contest, which closed in Beijing Saturday.

The contest, with the approval of the Education Ministry, was launched by China's prestigious Tsinghua University and the Central China Science and Technology University, aiming to promote the development of high-performance calculation in China.

The organizing committee received more than 700 entries from college students, teachers, researchers, engineers, farmers, soldiers and Chinese students studying abroad.

Zhang Jinyu headed the Beida team, which won the contest with a program featuring a distributed storage system.

The best 15 entries received prizes. The second place went to Tsinghua University students and the third went to students from Lanzhou University.

High-performance calculating capacity has become one of the key indicators of national strength in science and technology. China, along with many other countries worldwide, attaches increasing importance to this field.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2003)