Female Australian team to compete at EGOI in Germany
Australia is sending a team of four students to Bonn, Germany, to compete in the European Girls Informatics Olympiad (EGOI) from 14 to 20 July 2025.
The team was announced by the Australian Maths Trust (AMT) in a virtual event on Tuesday 3 June 2025. The students selected to represent Australia are Alexa Wu in Year 9 at Pymble Ladies’ College in NSW, Jenny He in Year 10 at Pymble Ladies’ College in NSW, Christina Chen in Year 12 at Korowa Anglican Girls’ School in Victoria, and Ayana Fridkin in Year 10 at Caulfield Grammar School – Wheelers Hill in Victoria.
EGOI is the premier international competition for highly talented young women interested in Computer Science. The competition began in 2021 and attracts delegations from all over the world, and has the unique motivational goal of promoting female talent in computer science.
“Today, there are more employment opportunities in the IT industry than ever before, but it remains an area where women are significantly under-represented. It is one of our aims at the Australian Maths Trust to address this disparity, and our decision to compete in the EGOI competition is an opportunity to demonstrate the capacity of young women and girls to excel in programming and problem-solving. Our team members have worked tirelessly to give themselves this chance and will hopefully inspire others to follow in their footsteps. In Bonn, they will meet many other young women from around the world who share their passion, and I am sure they will benefit enormously from this shared experience,” said Mike Clapper, CEO of the Australian Maths Trust (AMT), which selected and mentored the 2024 and 2025 Australian EGOI teams through its informatics program.
Australia first competed at the event in 2024, where three students earned bronze medals. This year, three members of last year’s team, Alexa, Ayana and Christina, will represent Australia once again. The final member of the team, Jenny He, is competing for the first time.
This year’s EGOI team will be led by Shayla Nguyen (Team Leader) and Honey Raut (Deputy Leader). Shayla has EGOI experience, having attended last year’s event as an Observer, and Honey competed as a member of the 2024 team.
AMT’s EGOI initiative is supported by the Trust’s National Sponsor of the Australian Informatics and Mathematical Olympiad Programs, Optiver, strategic higher education partner University of New South Wales, and the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
MEDIA CONTACTS: For more information, photos and interviews with the EGOI team or AMT CEO Mike Clapper, please contact Lauren Griffiths, Threesides Marketing, at 0417 409 264 or lauren.griffiths@threesides.com.au or Tash Morrison, Threesides Marketing, on (02) 6249 1117 or tash.morrison@threesides.com.au
Media backgrounder
Alexa Wu, Year 9, Pymble Ladies’ College, NSW
Alexa won an individual bronze medal in 2024 as part of the first Australian team to compete at EGOI and looks forward to meeting more cool, interesting people from other countries this year. She enjoys the adrenaline of competition and the satisfaction of solving difficult puzzles. Alexa recalls her first AMT informatics camp as the time that she really discovered the many interesting problems, techniques and people involved in informatics and how it gave her the confidence to keep working at it.
Jenny He, Year 10, Pymble Ladies’ College, NSW
Jenny has always enjoyed the thrill and challenge of problem-solving. What excites her most in informatics is the satisfaction of finally arriving at a solution. Jenny is especially looking forward to competing and to connecting with other young women who share her passion for informatics. Her advice to other informatics students is “keep going and never give up. Practise consistently, and don’t be afraid of a challenge.”
Christina Chen, Year 12, Korowa Anglican Girls’ School, VIC
Christina won bronze at last year’s EGOI competition and has plans to pursue further education in computer science or mathematics in the future. She realised that informatics is something that she really enjoys doing for many hours a day at her first AMT informatics camp because of the process of solving problems and the way that problems slowly make sense piece by piece as you think more about them. Christina is looking forward to going to Germany for EGOI 2025 to compete and meet like-minded people.
Ayana Fridkin, Year 10, Caulfield Grammar School, VIC
Ayana won a bronze medal at EGOI last year. She likes being able to solve problems with technology and says, ‘coding feels like speaking a different language.’ Ayana pursues many other interests such as piano, drums, singing, theatre club, cycling and soccer and first started to become invested in informatics in year 6 when she attended the AMT School of Excellence for coding, where manipulating complex ideas to solve problems sparked her interest. Her advice to other girls interested in informatics is to “be persistent. If it feels like you aren’t making any progress, keep going, because everyone hits a wall sometimes and even if you aren’t going forward, you’re climbing up the wall. Ignore gender barriers, seriously! Pursue what you like, nobody gets to tell you what you can and can’t spend your effort on.”