Posted Friday 14 August 2009

Australia's Informatics Olympiad team has won three Bronze Medals at the 21st International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The medallists are Evgeny Martynov, of James Ruse Agricultural High School, Daniel Berger of Moriah College and Kenneth Wong, also of James Ruse. All three are from Sydney.

This followed the announcement earlier in the day that hosting the 2013 IOI has been allocated to Australia. This will be run in Brisbane on the University of Queensland campus under an arrangement between the University of Queensland and the Australian Mathematics Trust.

The team at the Closing Ceremony, from left Daniel Berger, Evgeny Martynov Kenneth Wong and David Tian.

Individual score breakdowns were as follows:

		NAME	YR	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7	Q8	TOT
		BERGER Daniel Moriah College NSW	12	100	100	60	2	100	61	0	0	423
		MARTYNOV Evgeny James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	10	100	100	7	19	100	100	17	13	456
		TIAN David James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	12	100	0	9	13	100	32	5	3	262
		WONG Kenneth James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	11	100	100	13	21	100	54	17	12	417
		TOTALS		400	300	89	55	400	247	39	28	1558

Cutoffs for Bronze and Silver are thought to have been very close to 400 and 500 points respectively.

Team Leader was Bernard Blackham, while Deputy Team Leader was David Greenaway, both from Sydney.

The Olympiad program, like the ones in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, are held under the auspices of UNESCO and significant support is provided by the Australian Government through its Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR). Further assistance is provided by the Australian Computer Society.

Australia's participation in the IOI is administered by the Australian Mathematics Trust, based at the University of Canberra. Trust Executive director Professor Peter Taylor noted that performance in these Olympiads was just the tip of the iceberg.

He said that hundreds of thousands of students participate in school based activities first under the supervision of teachers, and students can develop their knowledge in these disciplines in stages to a very high level beyond classroom experience, enhancing their University study and later careers.

"Many of Australia's leading scientists under the age of about 40 are products of these programs and are serving their country in science in areas such as climate change and defence", he said.

Earlier ...

Posted Sunday 09 August 2009

Australia's Informatics Olympiad team has attended the Opening Ceremony for the 21st International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This Ceremony, in the Plovdiv International Fair, was attended by the President of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov, who gave the main address, and Minister for Education, Mrs Yordanka Fandakova, who also spoke.

They are shown above during the ceremony, with President of IOI, Mr Arturo Cepada, of Mexico, in centre. The ceremony was held during the evening of Sunday 09 August.

The team at the Opening Ceremony, from left David Tian, Daniel Berger, Kenneth Wong and Evgeny Martynov.

The team has trained in Paris with the French team, during the previous week and has its first exam on the morning of Monday 10 August.