Egypt won two medals, one silver and another bronze, in the 22nd International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI) held in Canada from 14-21 August, 2010.
This is the first time that Egypt wins a silver medal since the IOI first kicked off in 1989.
Egypt was represented in IOI 2010 by a four-member team, Ahmed Al-Azazy, Ahmed Salem Ezzat, Emad Farag William and Hossam Samy Abdel-Raouf.William won the silver medal while Al-Azazy won the bronze one.
This team was the one that won the first four places in the Egyptian Olympiad in Informatics (EOI) held from 16-22 July, 2010 under the auspices of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel.
The EOI is an annual event organized by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in cooperation with Ministry of Education, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AAST) and Cairo University.
According to the competition final results, Egypt surpassed Finland, Sweden, Denmark, South Africa, England, France, Australia, Argentina, Israel, Spain, Greece, Belgium and Luxemburg.
The US won the first place gaining three gold medals and a silver one.This year, 80 countries, including the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, Syria and UAE and Egypt, took part in the IOI.
Dr. Kamel stated that the fact the Egypt won these medals reflects the positive output of the MCIT strategy that encourages the IT utilization among the youths through a specialized contest in informatics as well as discovering and supporting young IT talents.
The MCIT, he added, works on training human resources on the skills required for the employment market as well as helping with creating a generation capable of systematic thinking, innovation and development.
For his part, Dr. Ekram Fathi, Senior Advisor to Minister of Communications and IT for Training and Human Resource Development noted that the launch of the first EOI in 2003 helped pave the way for Egyptian teams to later join the IOI on a regular basis.
MCIT first established the EOI in 2003. The EOI is held annual among Egypt contestants from all over Egypt. The first four winners are nominated to represent Egypt in the IOI.
Egypt won the first bronze medal in IOI 2005 held in Poland, then gained a similar one during the IOI 2006 organized by Mexico.
In 2008, Egypt organized the IOI and won a bronze medal. The following year, Egypt won three bronze medals during the IOI hosted by Belgium.
IOI is an annual international informatics competition for youngsters aged from six to 20 years old in one of the member states in the International Informatics Committee.
The competition tasks are of algorithmic nature. Contestants, however, have to show basic IT skills like problem analysis, designing algorithms and data structures, programming and testing.
The idea of the competition was first introduced during the 24th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris by the Bulgarian delegate Professor Bojidar Sendov in October 1987.
In 1989, the first IOI was held in Bulgaria to become an event hosted every year by a different country.
About IOI
IOI is an annual international informatics competition for youngsters in one of the member states in the International Informatics Committee.
The competition tasks are of algorithmic nature. Contestants, however, have to show basic IT skills like problem analysis, designing algorithms and data structures, programming and testing.
The idea of IOI was first introduced during the 24th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris by the Bulgarian delegate Professor Bojidar Sendov in October 1987.
In 1989, the first IOI was held in Bulgaria to become an event hosted annually by a different country. The plan was included into the 5th Main Program of UNESCO for the biennium 1988-1989.
