Teen programmers from 86 countries compete for top honours at an international coding contest. Each country sends four high school learners to the 2019 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). This year it takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 4-11 August.

This year’s team from South Africa is Tian Cilliers (Stellenbosch High School), Ralph McDougall, (Curro Durbanville), Taariq Mowzer, (Fairbairn College), and Andi Qu, (St John’s College, Johannesburg).

On each of the two contest days, participants have five hours to program the solutions to three problems. The preparation of the team from South Africa included 50 hours of contest programming mainly using problems from thirty past IOI contests. University computer science and mathematics students, Robin Visser and Bronson Rudner, trained the team over five weekends. Both have been medal winners at past SA Programming Olympiads and have represented the country at previous IOI contests

SA Computer Olympiad manager, Michael Cameron, says “This opportunity to measure up against the best programmers in the world is important for South Africa. It is a yardstick for our capacity. Our schools need to rise to the challenge of preparing our learners to take their part in the digital revolution in Africa and beyond.”

Media Release by Michael Cameron, manager of the South African Computer Olympiad michael@olympiad.org.za          082 780 7399    www.olympiad.org.za

High resolution photographs available from Chanelle: info@olympiad.org.za / 021-448 7864