Young Australians medal at international informatics Olympiad

Australia's informatics team have come away with an impressive three bronze medals at this year's International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).

There were 89 countries and 351 students participating virtually in the prestigious competition that ran over two competition days.

The official results, announced last night, saw Australia's top placing go to James King from Brisbane School of Distance Education in QLD at 95^th with a bronze medal.

This was followed by two more Bronze medals awarded to Evan Lin (placed 108^th) from Melbourne High School, VIC and Joshua Chen (placed 170^th) from Christ Church Grammar School, WA and Brynly Mitchell from Dickson College, ACT, placed 240^th.

Each competition day, the participants are given three tasks to complete and must design algorithms to produce the correct output from a given data input. Points are awarded for producing the correct output, the efficiency and speed of the algorithm and creativity.

The Australian Maths Trust (AMT) CEO, Nathan Ford, congratulated the Australian team on their result and praised their dedicated effort in the lead-up to the international event.

"We're so proud of each team member's results and on behalf of the Trust, I congratulate them all for their ongoing commitment and persistence throughout their training and at the competition.

"The IOI is the top pre-tertiary competition in informatics and the team deserves to celebrate their achievement, particularly given the event's virtual delivery due to COVID," said Nathan.

AMT's Olympiad programs are supported by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the Science Competitions: Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads grant opportunity. The Olympiad programs are also supported by the National Sponsor of the Australian Informatics and Mathematical Olympiads, Optiver.

2021 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) results

About the International Olympiad in Informatics

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is one of several international science Olympiads held annually around the world (in 2021 held virtually).

Exceptional high school students from various countries compete in the prestigious algorithmic competition to sharpen their informatics skills – such as problem analysis, design of algorithms and data structures, programming, and testing. Each participating country selects a team of up to four contestants to represent their nation in the two-day event.