In 2005 The Australian Mathematics Trust commenced a new Australian Informatics Competition.

The previous programming event known as the Australian Informatics Competition became known as the Australian Informatics Olympiad (AIO) and it continues to be held in the same format as before in September each year.

Whereas the AIO will be the main means of selecting students to attend training schools which are organised for training and selection of Australian teams, the AIC will be a strongly recommended entry event which will help identify such students.

Key features of the AIC are:

• This is in multiple choice and short answer format with all answers entered on a supplied mark sense sheet for optical reading and computer marking.
• There are three papers, Senior (Years 11 and 12), Intermediate (Years 9 and 10) and Junior (Years 7 and 8).
Certificates and reports showing level of achievement will be based on comparisons of students within their own year group.
• The competition has a time limit of one hour.
• No experience in computer programming is necessary.
• The questions involve some mathematical ideas related to computing and are therefore an ideal enrichment activity for a mathematics class.
• The questions determine whether a student might have a talent for designing and writing programs, something which students might not normally have an opportunity to demonstrate.
• The questions have a pleasant, friendly atmosphere, inviting the student to try something new and stimulating an interest in programming.
• The questions are written by some of Australia's most experienced teachers and computer scientists.
• This would be an ideal activity for your mathematics classes, brought to you by the Australian Mathematics Trust, which also brings you the long-running Australian Mathematics Competition.
• Professional Societies such as the Australian Computer Society and the Australian Council for Computers in Education are represented on the organising committee.

As with all AMT activities the problems are set to the highest standards. Uniquely, they are

• Original problems,
• composed in Australia,
• by teams of Australia's most experienced teachers and academics,
• working in problems committees as volunteers, and
• heavily moderated by further volunteers for mathematical and typographical accuracy.

In the case of the AIC, the Problems Committee is

• Chair: Dr David Clark, Adjunct Professor in Computing, University of Canberra
• Mr David Ananian-Cooper
• Mr Bernard Blackham, Sparke Helmore, Sydney
• Dr Benjamin Burton, University of Queensland
• Mr Andrew Gray, Canberra Grammar School
• Mr David Greenaway, Sydney
• Dr Dmitry Kaminetsky, NICTA
• Mr David Kennedy, Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane

Sample problems are available on the Trust's web site here.