A Silver Medal is won also

Australia has won its first ever Gold Medal at an International Olympiad in Informatics, the premier international competition for high school students at computer programming.

Fourteen year old Christopher Chen, of Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne, competing against 286 students from 76 countries up to the age of 19, won a Gold Medal, placing 15th in the world. Gold Medals were awarded to the top 24 students. This was Christopher's second attempt at this Olympiad. He also represented Australia in Poland in 2005 where he was the youngest student in the field.

The Australian team was participating in the 2006 event in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, from 13 to 20 August.

Two other students, Alan Alpert, of Brisbane Grammar School and Jack Murray, of De la Salle College in Melbourne narrowly missed Bronze Medals in a consistent team performance.

It was a defining moment for Team Leader Dr Ben Burton, of RMIT, who founded the training program in 1998. He was clearly proud of the way in which the whole team participated. Now that the program has produced a Gold Medal it has clearly come of age. Dr Burton noted that all four of the students had scored significant points on questions 3 and 6, which were among the more difficult.

Professor Peter Taylor, Executive Director of the Australian Mathematics Trust and manager of the team noted that whereas there were many computers in Australian schools, they were largely used for their utility programs and information searching.

"There is little teaching of computer programming in Australian schools, and very few teachers who can teach computer programming, with the result that there are many students not normally able to demonstrate a talent they have, a talent which is vitally important for this country's future. This program is designed to let students discover and develop their talent, and the fact that such young students can perform so well vindicates the program", he said.

He also noted that the program had produced now a number of students who have the experience of having participated in the IOI and these former students help Ben do most of the training.

The Australian Informatics Olympiad program is supported by the Australian Government though its Department of Education, Science and Training and by the Australian Computer Society.

The team, from left Alan Alpert, Christopher Chen, Jarrah Lacko and Jack Murray before the results were announced at the Closing Ceremony. Team Leader Dr Ben Burton (left) and Deputy Team Leader, Bernard Blackham, of the University of WA are standing.

Detailed scores (each question has a possible score of 100 - scores are obtained from a program which test's the student's program against test data designed by the examining committee):

		NAME	YR	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	TOT
		ALPERT Alan Brisbane Grammar School QLD	12	60	59	34.82	0	0	28.29	182
		CHEN Christopher Carey Baptist Grammar School VIC	11	100	100	73.19	100	0	40.84	414
		LACKO Jarrah James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	10	100	56	24.73	100	0	33.32	314
		MURRAY Jack De la Salle College Malvern VIC	10	100	59	5.00	0	0	33.32	197

The lowest Bronze, Silver and Gold scores, respectively, were 219, 314 and 385.