To mark Singapore's selection as the host country for the 2027 International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), and to celebrate Team Singapore's performance at this year's Olympiad in Astana, Kazakhstan, NTU Singapore held a commendation event for the participants and trainers on 10 Sep.
The IOAI announced at the Olympiad's closing ceremony in August that IOAI 2027 will be jointly hosted by AI Singapore (AISG) and NTU in Singapore from 4 to 10 July 2027.
Professor Luke Ong, NTU Vice President (AI & Digital Economy) and Dean of the College of Computing and Data Science (CCDS), said hosting the IOAI strengthens Singapore's standing on the global map for AI.
Prof Ong said: "Singapore will have the privilege of hosting IOAI 2027 jointly organised by NTU and AI Singapore. It will take a whole-village approach: government agencies, schools, educators, universities, industry partners, families and the wider AI community coming together to welcome the world.
We look forward to our IOAI alumni giving back-not only by sharing their experiences, but also by supporting the technical work behind IOAI 2027. Their involvement will help us build a stronger community for those who will follow."
The commendation ceremony was attended by guests from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, and the participants' families.
The eight students representing Singapore this year hail from Eunoia Junior College, Hwa Chong Institution, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Raffles Institution and Victoria Junior College. They brought home one Gold medal, three Silver medals and three Bronze medals.
They began training for the Olympiad in May with faculty from NTU CCDS. Over two days of competition, contestants tackled six tasks covering different areas of AI, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and multimodal processing.
Team Singapore faced a tough first day, with challenging questions and a performance that fell short of expectations. However, they rallied and adapted on the second day to earn seven medals overall.
Prof Ong said: "The deeper lesson is that progress in AI - and in life - does not come only from getting every answer right at the first attempt. It comes from resilience, reflection and the confidence to try again. I hope our students will carry this lesson with them well beyond the competition."
