Posted Friday 22 August 2008

Australia's Informatics Olympiad team has scored its best ever result at an International Olympiad in Informatics, recording a clean sweep of medals exceeding its result in Zagreb in 2007.

Jack Murray, of De la Salle College, Melbourne, earned a Gold Medal, recording the 9th highest score in this international competition. Harry Slatyer, of Narrabundah College, Canberra, and Jarrah Lacko, of James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney both won Silver Medals while Xi Chen, also of James Ruse Agricultural High School, completed the team's clean sweep with a Bronze Medal.

On the basis of a medal table (see below) giving 3 points for Gold, 2 for Silver and 1 for Bronze, Australia would be placed equal 8th out of 83 competing countries.

The team after the Closing Ceremony with their medals, from left Xi Chen, Jack Murray, Harry Slatyer and Jarrah Lacko.

Both Jack and Jarrah had previously won Silver Medals, Jack last year in Zagreb, and Jarrah in Merida, Mexico, in 2006.

The Informatics Olympiad Program is run under the auspices of the Australian Mathematics Trust, whose Executive Director, Professor Peter Taylor, said "The result is a tribute to Dr Benjamin Burton, a former mathematics Olympiad Gold Medallist, who has developed the training program from scratch over a ten-year period in difficult circumstances. The Informatics Program receives less funding than the more established programs in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and as a result, we are not able to train this team to the same level as we could, with more resources".

As an added honour for the team Dr Burton was elected to the elite International Scientific Committee, which works on the tasks to be set at coming IOIs and advises on the associated technology.

Dr. Burton, who is also Australian Team Leader, with the team in Cairo, said: “I am immensely proud of the entire team, and the results are a tribute to the massive amount of work they have put in throughout the year”.

Deputy Leader, Bernard Blackham, added: “They have put in a huge amount of training and dedication to be here today. These medals are a wonderful result for the team and for computer science in Australia”.

The International Olympiad in Informatics is the pinnacle of competition in computer science for high school students around the world. Each country sends a team of four students to participate in ten hours of programming competition. The International Olympiad in Informatics is the second largest of the International Science Olympiads, sanctioned by UNESCO, with the number of participating countries approaching 90.

The Australian team is selected based on a series of exams. The first of these, the Australian Informatics Olympiad, is held in Australian secondary schools in the first week of September each year.

Detailed scores of the Australian team were:

		NAME	YR	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	TOT
		CHEN Xi James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	12	100	19	0	8	0	0	127
		LACKO Jarrah James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	12	100	62	10	55	5	11	243
		MURRAY Jack De la Salle College Malvern VIC	12	100	86	0	100	100	35	421
		SLATYER Harry Narrabundah College ACT	12	100	3	0	100	28	15	246
		TOTALS		400	170	10	263	133	61	1037

Students wishing to participate in the Australian Informatics Olympiad should email here.

For additional information on the International Olympiad in Informatics or the Australian Informatics Olympiad, contact Bernard Blackham or visit here.

The program is supported by the Australian Government through its Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Earlier ...

The Australian team has arrived in Cairo to participate at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). This is being conducted at Mubarak City, just outside Cairo. The team is pictured below at Cairo airport after arrival, from left Deputy Leader Bernard Blackham, Jack Murray, Harry Slatyer, Jarrah Lacko and Xi Chen.