The Computer Applications Olympiad had double the anticipated number of schools participating this year.  Finalists came from six provinces to compete for the co.za Cares trophy at the University of Cape Town.

 BACKGROUND

 The Computer Applications Olympiad (CAO) challenges the skills of learners in the use of Computer Office packages like Microsoft Office, Open Office and Libre Office.  The competition is open to all full-time school learners in South Africa, but is aimed at high school learners.

 The Computer Society of South Africa has been running a Programming Olympiad for 28 years.  However that competition did not cater for a new school subject CAT, (Computer Application Technology) introduced in recent years.  Instead of programming, CAT students learn how to use office applications such as Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Databases, Presentation tools and Publishing Tools.  Unlike programming CAT is offered in many disadvantaged schools and is popular among both boys and girls.

 The first Applications Olympiad took place in 2010.  To the organisers surprise more than 6 000 learners from 118 schools entered.  For 2011 they therefore expected about 10 000 learners from 200 schools.  Instead there were nearly 13 000 from close on 400 schools.  Fortunately sponsors UniForum SA and the Department of Science and Technology provided additional funding to cope with the growth.

 In the round done at 393 schools, learners were asked to use their skills in extracting and manipulating information from data provided on a CD – using word processing, spreadsheets and a database.  For the Finals 13 participants from six different provinces were brought to Cape Town.  Their task was to create or manipulate various documents for an estate agency.

 WINNERS

 Gold medal winner and winner of the co.za Cares Trophy was last year’s silver medal winner, Helen Denny from grade 12 at La Rochelle Girls High in Paarl.  Helen has had a computer at home since 1996 when she was four years old, and has had internet access since primary school.

 Helen loves Olympiads and other competitions.  She is a regular competitor in the Maths Olympiad, the Science Olympiad, the English Olympiad, the Global Olympiad, the Accounting Olympiad and many other competitions and Eisteddfods.  Not surprising she is the 2010 Dux of her school.  Helen has enrolled at the Stellenbosch University to read for a BA LLB.

 Silver medals went to Jaco Nortier of Paarl Gymnasium and Sean Wentzel of Westerford High School.

 Jaco is also a regular competitor in the Maths and English Olympiads.  He is going to study for a B Com at Stellenbosch University.

 Sean Wentzel is not only a regular competitor in local Olympiads, but has won three medals at international events.  At the International Mathematics Olympiad he won bronze in 2010 and silver in 2011.  At the International Olympiad in Informatics (Programming) he won bronze in 2010.  Unlike all the other winners, Sean does not take CAT at school.  His skills are self taught.  Sean is going to study Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Cape Town.

 Sean missed the Applications Olympiad Awards function and as he was in Johannesburg to compete in the MinQuiz Competition.  Westerford Principal, Rob le Roux, collected the award on his behalf.

 Bronze medals went to Erns Labuschagné and Richard Saunders, both of Paarl Gymnasium and René Engelbrecht from the Hoër Volkskool, Potchefstroom.

 OPPORTUNITIES

 Guest Speaker, Professor Jean-Paul van Belle, of the Information Systems Department at the University of Cape Town, spoke about the opportunities available to young people in ICT – more than ever before.  He elaborated on several examples of students who had developed successful applications – such as IT multi-billionaire Mark Shuttleworth.  Many of them had started developing their successful products while still students.

 The Computer Olympiad Manager drew attention to the fact that 4 of the 6 medal winners were from Paarl.  He attributes this to the intense competition between schools.  “This is a good example of how a competition like the Olympiad can improve education standards in an entire town”.

 PROVINCIAL WINNERS

 The Computer Olympiad organizers used the occasion to announce the provincial winners for the previous round.  (See under “RESULTS”)

 National Results:

 At an awards dinner at Kelvin Grove on 5 September, the six winners of the 2011 Computer Programming Olympiad  received their medals in front of their peers, parents, principals and teachers.  Guest speaker was Donald Grant, MEC for Education for the Western Cape.  In the audience were several academic leaders and Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille.

 MEC Donald Grant praised Olympiads for encouraging excellence not only in Information Technology, but also in other subjects.  He explained that it is the WCED’s goal to have the fastest possible internet service at all of its schools for free or at significantly reduced costs.

The finalists represented five of South Africa’s nine provinces.  To be a finalist they had to beat more than 31,000 participants from 459 schools in the First Round and 3,000 entries from 187 centres in the Second Round.

 WINNER

Overall winner, Vaughan Newton of grade 12 at Bishops, was taking part in his third Computer Programming Olympiad Final, having won silver in 2010 and having been a runner up in 2009.  Vaughan was a member of the South African team that took part in the International Olympiad in Informatics in Thailand this year.  Competing against participants from 80 countries, he won a bronze medal there.

 Vaughan is an unassuming, quiet young man who looks more like a rugby forward than a computer enthusiast.  He regularly competes in the Maths Olympiad and of course in international online programming competitions to hone his skills.  After his tertiary studies he hopes to establish a start-up company in ICT.

 Among the prizes Vaughan won were the prestigious Standard Bank Trophy, R42,000 in prize money – including the R30,000 Python award, and R5,000 for his school.

 He and the two silver medal winners also received access to “Books 24/7” allowing them to use more than 11,000 books online – a very relevant and useful prize for the online generation.

PYTHON

R100,000 of the prize money was donated by Mark Shuttleworth, the IT billionaire, in his personal capacity on condition that the recipients use the computer language Python to participate.  All the medal winners did.

 Python is the language that Mark Shuttleworth used to write the software that made him a multi-billionaire.  To encourage others to have the same opportunity that he had, Mark made the prize money available for Python users.  Python has become very popular in recent years and Python developers are in high demand.  The University of Cape Town and other universities are now using Python as the first language students will use during Computer Science degree courses.

 SILVER

Silver awards and R25,000 in prize money each were given to Stephen Barnes, a grade 11 learner at Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth, and Sean Wentzel, a grade 12 learner at Westerford High School.

 Both of them are regular Maths Olympiad participants.  Stephen Barnes also came first in the Science Olympiad in 2009 while Sean Wentzel not only won the Computer Programming Olympiad in 2010, but also achieved bronze at the International Olympiad in Informatics that year and silver at the International Maths Olympiad this year.

 BRONZE

Bronze awards and R13,000 in prize money each went to grade 12 learners Yaseen Hamdulay of Wynberg Boys’ High, Ashraf Moolla of Rondebosch Boys’ High, and to Robert Spencer a grade 11 learner at Westerford High.  Both Moolla and Spencer are regular participants in Maths Olympiads

 It is Ashraf’s second bronze medal at the Computer Olympiad.  Ashraf is following in the footsteps of his brothers Saadiq (silver 2007, bronze 2006) and Haroon (bronze 2008, silver 2007).  However, he beats his brothers in being the first in the family to win a Python prize.

Remarked Computer Olympiad Manager, Peter Waker: “Since 2006, there has only been one year when there was no Moolla boy among the medal winners.  A very remarkable family.”

 RUNNERS-UP

The other competitors in the Final Round received student membership of the CSSA and other gifts.  They were:

Christiaan Kruger        Grade 12         Duineveld High                        Upington

Mose Kwon                 Grade 12         Pretoria Boys’ High                 Pretoria

Bertus Malan               Grade 12         Pretoria Boys’ High                 Pretoria

Christiaan Müller         Grade 12         Paul Roos Gymnasium          Stellenbosch

Dylan Nelson               Grade 11         Benoni High                             Benoni

Guy Paterson-Jones   Grade 10         Bishops                                   Cape Town

Dineo Sathekge          Grade 12         CBC Mt Edmund                     Pretoria

Ann Wait                     Grade 11         Nico Malan High                      Humansdorp

Grant Zietsman           Grade 11         Pretoria Boys’ High                 Pretoria

 Remarked Peter Waker, “Pretoria Boys’ High did very well, having three finalists from the same school.  This is only the third time in the 28-year history of the Olympiad that a school has more than two finalists – the other two occasions being Rondebosch Boys’ High in 2007 and 2008.”

GIRLS

For the first time in a number of years two girls took part in the Finals: Dineo Sathekge from CBC Mt Edmund in Pretoria and Ann Wait from Nico Malan High in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape.

 Asked what they thought of the competition, Dineo Sathekge jokingly remarked: “If the boys had been real gentlemen, they would have let the girls come first.”  Ann Wait who is only in grade 11 and can therefore compete again in 2012, promised in true Arnie style: “I’ll be back.”

 Two South African learners won medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics in Thailand.  In two days of programming, they competed against participants from 79 other countries – including China, Russia and the USA.

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 The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is one of the annual Science Olympiads that is held in a different country every year.  For 2011 the host is Thailand and teams from 79 countries travelled to the city of Pattaya to compete with each other.

 On each of the two competition days the participants were given three problems and five hours to write the programs to solve the problems.  The automated judging system then tests how efficiently the program produces the answers – often requiring that the correct answers be produced by the program in less than half a second.

 The South African Team missed two of its stars who had gone off to take part in the International Maths Olympiad in Amsterdam.  Despite this the team did well; earning two bronze medals.  Most successful was Vaughan Newton of the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Cape Town.   The other medal was won by Bennie Swart, who was a learner at the Bellville High School when he won a place on the team.  Bennie is currently studying engineering at the University of the North West in Potchefstroom.

 As in preceding years, and as one can expect in an international competition of this nature, the problems were exceedingly difficult to solve.  The South African team accumulated 990 points, more than any other African team except Egypt.

 The top 10 individual performances:

 1          Gennady Korotkevich, Belarus

2          Haoqiang,  Fan  China

3          Pavel  Kunyavskiy,  Russian Federation

3          Felipe  Souza,  Brazil

5          Alexander  Timin,  Russian Federation

6          Wenyu  Cao,  United States of America

7          Erjin  Zhou,  China

8          Jan  Milczek,  Poland

9          Paul  Kirchner,  France

10        Zhongtian  Jiang,  China

 Gennady Korotkevich of Belarus has now taken part in his sixth IOI and is equalling the all-time record held by South African Bruce Merry, who also competed at six IOIs and won a medal at each.  This year’s youngest competitor  was 13-year-old Eduard Grigoryan of the USA.

 By making all the scores available, the organisers made it possible to rank the participating countries. The top 3 are those one would expect to see at the top:  China, Russia and the USA. However there are some surprises among the rest of the top ten:  Taiwan, Croatia, Japan, Poland, Bulgaria, and host country Thailand.   South Africa is ranked 44^th, immediately above Denmark, New Zealand, Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom.

 As is now usual at science related Olympiads, there were very few girls among the 307 participants at the IOI. The five present represented Vietnam, Georgia, Indonesia, Cyprus and Bangladesh.  Asked why she had decided to compete with so many boys, Bristy Sikder of Bangladesh blamed it all on her father:  “He told me that just because other girls don’t do it doesn’t mean that I can’t do it.”

 It was not all work at the IOI.  The participants had fun meeting new friends and visiting local sites.  At the Nong Nooch Gardens, a 600-acre adventure garden outside Pattaya, the high light was the elephant show Elephants playing soccer is something we missed at the World Cup in 2010 – not to mention elephants dancing and elephants riding tricycles. 

 The contestants went to visit the Ancient City at Samut Prakan, with its replicas of ancient palaces, temples and traditional houses.  The leaders went to visit the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok.  The population of Thailand is 95% Buddhist and the Guavas (Thai name for Westerners)  had to be educated on what is appropriate for a palace and a temple.  Among the instructions: an illustrated A4-page on what not to wear:  No bare arms or even short sleeves, no shorts, torn or tight pants.  Skirts to cover the knees and no bare midriffs.  

 In general the Thai people create the impression that their prime aim in life is to make visitors feel welcome.  It took us a little time before we got used to the “wai” greeting, but not long before we could “wai” back.  The wai in Thailand is a greeting which shows politeness, respect, honour and friendship. One puts ones palms together and raises them to the chest while keeping the elbows close together and bowing the head.  Depending on the rank of the person being waid, the bow could go as far as the forehead touching the index fingers.

 Press Release by:              Peter Waker

                                                Manager: SA Computer Olympiad

                                                Ph:   021-448-7864

                                                Fax:  021-447-8410

The Computer Programming Olympiad Finalists, the Provincial Certificates Winners and the Top Schools are listed below.

TOP 60 SCHOOLS

The top 60 schools are listed below.  Only schools where learners solved more than two of the problems have been entered.

 Half of the medal winners at the South African Computer Applications Olympiad were girls – beating more than 6 000 participants countrywide.  However, the winner overall was a boy, Taariq Asmal of the Tshwane Muslim School.

 The Computer Olympiad attracts 38 000 participants in the First Round, but only 3 500 go on to

the Second Round which requires programming skills.  In 2010, for the first time, there was a Second Round for Computer Applications – such as spreadsheets, databases, word processors and presentation tools.  It was a pilot project, and the organisers expected around 500 participants – instead there were more than 6 000.

 The 2010 teachers strike delayed the Final Round till January 2011. 

 The top eleven of the 6 000 were invited to a Final Round in January 2011 to find the best Computer application user in South Africa. 

 Four of the eleven finalist’s were girls – most unusual for a technology based Olympiad.  More surprising, three of the six medal winners were girls and one was only in grade 11 when she beat 6 000 others to reach the finals.

 Guest speaker, Prof Louis Fourie, Head of Information Systems at the University of the Western Cape, stressed the shortage of Computer skills in South Africa and the opportunities awaiting the participants. 

 The awards were handed out by Carina Labuscagne, CAT & IT Co-ordinator  at the Department of Basic Education and Bersan Lesch, Deputy Director, Talent for Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Careers, at the Department of Science and Technology.

 Gold Medal winner was Taariq Asmal, the 2010 Deputy Head Boy of the Tshwane Muslim School.  Taariq was the school’s top student in Computer Applications Technology, History and Mathematics, and he is also interested in soccer and cricket.

 He has registered at the University of Pretoria to qualify as a Computer Engineer.

 Silver Medals were won by two girls Helen Denny and Melodé Rozenkrantz thereby beating all but one of the more than 6 000 entries.  Helen is a regular Olympiad participant; having participated in the Maths Olympiad, the English Olympiad, the Bible Olympiad, the Debating Competition and a number of Eisteddfods. Helen was only in grade 11 at La Rochelle Girls’ High when she won her place in the finals.

 The academic interest is balanced by her interest in netball, tennis and swimming. Not surprisingly she is Chairperson of the Debating Society and her schools grade 11 Dux.

 She plans to study Law and Accounting at Stellenbosch University in 2012.

 Melodé Rozenkrantz is from Linkside High in Port Elizabeth and was the only Eastern Cape participant in the finals.  Apart from doing Olympiads, she loves ballroom dancing and cricket.  She is registered for a BSc Mathematics and Computer Science at Stellenbosch University.

 Bronze Medals were won by Conrad Mönnig, Steven Ontong and Adriëtte le Roux.

 Conrad is from Penryn College in Nelspruit and was the only finalist from Mpumalanga.  Steven Ontong is from Hottentots-Holland High in Somerset West.  Conrad is registered for Mechanical Engineering at Tukkies while Steven will do Electrical Engineering at Stellenbosch University.

Adriëtte le Roux, who won a bronze medal, has also achieved in many other fields.  She was a prefect in 2010, came fifth in the Bilingual Olympiad and was first in the Backsberg Art Competition.  Her writing has been published in “English Alive” and her artwork has been used for a calendar and an anti-drug poster.  Commented judge, Doctor Pam Miller: “One could see the artistic talent.  She designed by far the most original letterhead.”

 In the final school exam, Adriëtte had the highest marks for CAT in the Western Cape.  Olympiad administrator, Peter Waker, explained: “The Olympiad and CAT are not the same. The Olympiad required much more from participants than the school subject.  It gives learners an opportunity to demonstrate what they know in ways they were never taught.”

 Adriëtte started her studies for a BA degree at Stellenbosch University this month.  She intends to become a teacher.

 To enter for the 2011 Olympiad, go to www.olympiad.org.za

 RESULTS:

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 Computer Programming is offered at very few schools, but a new subject Computer Applications Technology (CAT) is offered at more and more schools – including disadvantaged schools.  CAT involves the use of common application tools such as Word Processing, Spreadsheets and Databases.  A large and representative group of learners is taking this subject.

The Western Cape, for example, has 650 matriculants taking IT, but 10 000 studying CAT.

To give CAT learners and others with computer experience an opportunity to show their skills, the Computer Olympiad Trust, which for years has organized the Programming Olympiad, ran a pilot Applications Olympiad.  “We needed to get experience with this type of Olympiad “,explained Peter Waker, Manager of the Computer Olympiad.  “It was the end of the year and during a teachers’ strike.  We were not expecting more than 500 participants.”

However, news spreads fast among the users of e-mail, Facebook, Blogs and Twitter.  Instead of 500 no less than 6 318 learners registered.  That was not the only surprise.  Some very good entries came from schools that do not even offer the subjects IT or CAT.

“Karla Smit from grade 7 at Koos Sadie Primary School in Goodwood nearly made it into the finals” comments Waker, “and this is using a paper that was regarded as too difficult by many teachers.”

Unlike the Programming Olympiad around half of the participants were girls and four out of the eleven finalists are female – two from the same school: La Rochelle in Paarl.

The eleven top scoring learners have been invited to the Finals.  They are (in alphabetical order):

Will there be a Computer Applications Olympiad in 2011?

“You can bet on it” states Waker.  “We are anticipating more than 10 000 entries this time and several potential sponsors have come forward.”

 Every year learners from countries from all over the world meet for the International Olympiad in Informatics.  This year learners from 80 countries met at the University of Waterloo near Toronto, Canada to compete in the 2010 IOI.

SOUTH AFRICAN TEAM

A team of four candidates from SA traveled to Waterloo where they joined 304 other contestants to solve the eight problems ranging from easy to difficult extremely challenging.

Francois Conradie – De Kuilen High School, Kuils River, Western Cape

Graham Manuell – De La Salle Holy Cross College, Johannesburg, Gauteng

Kosie van der Merwe – Brackenfell High School, Western Cape

Sean Wentzel – Westerford High School, Western Cape

Team Leader was Peter Waker, Manager of the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad, assisted by Keegan Carruthers-Smith, postgraduate student at the University of Cape Town, and himself a previous Olympiad medal winner.

The four learners were selected from the more than 33 000 candidates who took part in the 2009 Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad and who received additional training at three Training Camps run by the South African Computer Olympiad Trust.

SCOREBOARD

The participants spent two days – 5 hours per day – writing the computer programs that would solve the given problems. 

This year, as an experiment, the organizers had a live scoreboard available on the internet.  “Spectators” worldwide could log in and follow the contest as it developed.  Comments deputy leader Keegan Carruthers-Smith: “It added excitement for us.  We could see our candidates rise and fall in the ranking as the contest progressed.”

Sean Wentzel of South Africa was among the silver medal winners on several occasions, but others passed him in the ranking before the end of the contest, and he dropped back to bronze.  (see www.ioi2010.org)

One of the aspects that became clear early on in the contest is the tremendous difference in IT education between countries.  Some participants wrote a program to solve the first (easy) problem within 6 minutes; a few could not do so in 5 hours.

GIRLS

Many participating countries report that the number of students graduating in informatics has decreased this decade.  Especially noticeable at the IOI was the absence of female participants.  Although there were more than 300 participants, only nine were girls; three from the same country – Libya.  Masoud, the only male in the team, was the envy of many other participants.

RESULTS

The overall winner was Gennady Kosotkevich of Belarus.  Although he is only 15, Gennady was competing in his 5^th IOI and is close to beating all time record holder, South African Bruce Merry, who competed in six IOIs and won a medal at each.

Second was Bulgarian Rumen Hristow who was competing in his third IOI.

Third was Adrian Jaskolka a first time competitor from Poland.

USA team members Wenyu Cao and Michael Cohen came fourth and fifth respectively.

Canadian Yu Cheng came sixth.

Noticeable was that Chinese team members, usually dominating the top places, came 10^th, 11^th, 27^th and 32^nd.  Commented South African team leader Peter Waker:  “The Chinese policy of dropping gold medal winners from the next year’s team to get a wider distribution of medals is unusual and probably prevented them from dominating the first few places this year.”

The availability of official scores allowed for reliable ranking of countries.

South Africa ranks 28^th of 80 countries; just below Hong Kong and Brazil, and just above Serbia and Israel.  South Africa is also the top ranked African country; well above Egypt (35^th), Madagascar (70^th), Ghana (72^nd), Libya (78^th) and Nigeria (79^th).

EXPLORING

Each team had a Canadian student as guide – usually one who spoke their home language.  This was possible because the University of Waterloo attracts such a cosmopolitan student body.

There were organized outings to a Theme Park and to the Niagara Falls, in addition many participants used the opportunity to attend appropriate lectures at the university and explore the town of Waterloo.  The South African team went ice skating and go-karting with their guide.  Many decided they want to return to the University of Waterloo for postgraduate studies.