Australia’s brightest informatics students have finished competing at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held 7-15 August 2022.
The IOI program, which sees the Australian students taking part supported by the not-for-profit Australian Maths Trust, resulted in all team members being awarded silver medals and ranking highly amongst a pool of 346 of the best informatics students from around the world. Put simply, informatics in this context is competitive programming, and the IOI is the highest level pre-tertiary competition of its sort in the world.
“Our team took home four silver medals this year, an absolutely wonderful result. Hundreds of problems solved, and thousands of lines of code written has led to one of the best performances Australia has had since 2014,” said Kevin Tran, Team Leader of the 2022 Australian IOI delegation.
Hosted by Indonesia in Yogyakarta as a hybrid with both onsite and online participation opportunities, the Australian team planned to compete from Sydney following the pre-IOI training camp, incorporating a visit to the head office of program partner and proud sponsor Optiver. Risk mitigation measures however meant that the camp was prematurely ended, leading to the Australian team competing from their own homes under exam supervision.
The four Informatics students who participated were Jerry Zirui Li from James Ruse Agricultural High School (NSW) who ranked 33rd , narrowly missing out on a gold medal; Arthur Wenqi Sun from Scotch College (VIC) who ranked 63rd; Joshua Chen from Christ Church Grammar School (WA) who ranked 65th; and Evan Lin from Melbourne High School (VIC) who ranked 71st .
The Australian Maths Trusts’ CEO Nathan Ford praised the students for their silver medals.
“On behalf of the Trust, I’d like to congratulate Jerry, Arthur, Joshua and Evan for their silver medal haul at last week’s International Olympiad in Informatics. Four silver medals for Australia demonstrates their commitment, hard work and creativity as excellent problem solvers, and once again highlights the quality of training provided by our staff and volunteers,” said AMT CEO, Nathan Ford.
“The students’ achievements are all the more impressive given how Covid disrupted their training before the event,” Mr Ford concluded.
The Australian Olympiad programs, including both Informatics and Mathematics, are supported by funding from the Australia Federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources. For more information about the Olympiads program, visit https://www.amt.edu.au/olympiad-programs
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MEDIA BACKGROUNDER
Australia’s Mathematical and Informatics Olympiad programs are run by the not-for-profit Australian Maths Trust.
International Olympiad in Informatics
7–15 August 2022
Joshua Chen Year 12 Christ Church Grammar School WA – Silver
Jerry Zirui Li Year 11 James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW – Silver
Evan Lin Year 11 Melbourne High School VIC- Silver
Arthur Sun Year 11 Scotch College VIC – Silver