Four out of Four – Belarusian School Students Won International Olympiad in Informatics
Young Belarusian computer scientists won two silver and two bronze medals at the 27th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). IOI was held at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan from July 26 to August 2. 322 school students from 84 countries competed for the awards. According to the IOI rules, each country is represented by no more than four students. All Belarusian team members came back with awards.
Nikita Sazanovich, an 11th-grade student at Stolbtsy School No. 3, and Barbara Kuskova, an 11th-grade student at Vitebsk Gymnasium No. 1, won silver medals.
Ilya Medyanikov, a 10th-grade student at Vitebsk Gymnasium No. 8, and Alexei Vistyazh, an 11th-grade student at Ivye School were awarded bronze medals.
The team was trained by Irina Kirinovich, Head of the Department of Informatics at the Minsk State Higher Radioengineering College, and Alexey Tolstikov, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science of the Belarusian State University and an employee of the HTP company YandexBel.
According to the IOI rules, participants compete individually using computers only. Each student is given three problems to solve during five hours using different programming languages. Usually to solve a task, a contestant has to write a computer program (in C, C++, Pascal, PHP, or Java) which is then graded by being run with secret test data. Another type of problem has known inputs, and contestants have to submit an output file instead of a program.
It is remarkable that Alexei Vistyazh and Barbara Kuskova win the International Olympiad in Informatics for the second time in a row. This year, Alexei has become a student of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR) where he was admitted without passing centralized examinations. Barbara Kuskova has entered BSUIR, too.
HTP resident-companies provided assistance in preparing and organizing the participation of the Belarusian team in IOI. Game Stream supports young computer scientists for several years. The company invites team members to its office to encourage and inspire them. Numerical Methods is a regular sponsor of IT Olympiads in Belarus and also provides support to Belarusian teams participating in international competitions.
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The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is an annual competition for school students. The first IOI was held in Pravets, Bulgaria in 1989. Today, it is one of the most prestigious competitive programming events. One of its goals is to bring together exceptionally talented pupils from various countries and to have them share scientific and cultural experiences. In 2016, IOI will be held in Kazan, Russia.
