COMPUTER OLYMPIAD WARNS OF SKILLS SHORTAGE
When announcing the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad results for 2008 in Cape Town this week, Peter Waker, a Director of the Computer Society of South Africa, highlighted the opportunities created by a world-wide shortage of Informatics Scientists.
The Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad is an annual competition to identify, encourage and reward programming skills among high school learners. The competition attracted nearly 23,000 entries for the First Round this year, and 2,700 for the Second Round. Sixteen learners were invited to take part in the Final Round which took place at the University of Cape Town on 27 and 28 September. The winners were announced at a gala function at Kelvin Grove in Cape Town this week.
Guest Speaker Sandie Overtveld, Marketing Manager of Microsoft South Africa, explained how his company is always searching for new and creative programming talent, and that such talent is hard to find.
Peter Waker, a director of the Computer Society of South Africa, expanded by pointing out the opportunities for the Computer Olympiad participants. “While the world needs more Informatics experts, the education system is actually delivering fewer. This is a world-wide trend, but in South Africa the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Education are taking active steps to encourage interest in Science, Engineering and Technology. They have created a body to encourage and support competitions like the Computer Olympiad.
Brendon Wilson, from the sponsor Standard Bank, added: “Standard Bank encourages the development of talent in young South Africans and for this reason we support organisations like the Computer Olympiad.”
RESULTS
The Gold Medal, the Standard Bank Trophy and R41 000 was won by Francois Conradie, a grade 11 student at De Kuilen High School in Kuilsriver, Western Cape. This is the second time that Francois has reached the Computer Olympiad finals. In 2007 he won a R10 000 prize for being one of the top programmers using the computer language Python.
Silver Medals were awarded to Kosie van der Merwe, a grade 11 learner at Brackenfell High School in the Western Cape, and Robert Ketteringham a grade 12 learner at Rondebosch Boys’ High.
Michiel Baird of Elspark High School in Gauteng and Haroon Moolla of Rondebosch Boys’ High won Bronze. Also getting Bronze was the youngest medal winner in the competition - Schalk-Willem Krüger, in Grade 11 at Ferdinand Postma High School in North West Province. Schalk-Willem, who skipped a grade or two, participated in the Computer Olympiad for the third year in succession.
PYTHON PRIZES
IT multi-billionaire, Mark Shuttleworth, donated R100 000 in prize money for the top six participants who use the computer language Python in the Final Round of the competition. This was the language used by Mark to develop the software on which his first successful business was built. By donating these prizes he wants to offer other young South Africans some of the same experiences and opportunities he had.
The Python Prizes were awarded as follows:
R30 000: Francois Conradie, Grade 11 at De Kuilen High, Western Cape
R20 000: Robert Ketteringham, Grade 12 at Rondebosch Boys’ High, Western Cape
R20 000: Kosie van der Merwe, Grade 11 at Brackenfell High, Western Cape
R10 000: Schalk-Willem Krüger, Grade 11 at Ferdinand Postma, North West Province
R10 000: Michiel Baird, Grade 12 at Elspark High School, Gauteng
R10 000: Gwylim Ashley, Grade 11 at Oakhill School, Western Cape
Photos are available on request.
Complete list of all 16 Final Round participants available on request.
Please contact info@olympiad.org.za
Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: SA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
ANOTHER MEDAL FOR SA
With South Africa suffering from a medal drought, the good news is that a South African did land a bronze; not in Beijing, but in Cairo, and not in sport, but in computer programming.
Every year students from about 80 countries from all over the world meet for the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). This year 283 students from 73 countries met at the Mubarak City of Education, in the desert, 30km West of Cairo to compete in the 20th IOI.
A team of four South Africans joined competitors from Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and teams from 5 other continents to compete for Gold, Silver and Bronze. Team members were selected from the 34 000 participants in the 2007 South African Standard Bank Computer Olympiad. All were still at school when selected.
Mark Danoher, Pearson High (Port Elizabeth)
Robert Ketteringham, Rondebosch Boys’ High (Cape Town)
Schalk-Willem Krüger, Ferdinand Postma High (Potchefstroom)
Saadiq Moolla, Rondebosch Boys’ High (Cape Town)
The participants spend two days - 5 hours per day - writing the computer programmes that will solve the given problems. Mark Danoher took the lead among the South Africans by scoring 100 on the First Day. However the next competition day it was Saadiq Moolla's turn to score 100. Saadiq's combined score for the two days was sufficient to earn him a bronze medal.
Peter Waker of the Computer Society of South Africa, and manager of the Standard Bank Computer Olympiad had the following comment: "The problems were extremely challenging this year, and many participants had to go home with a zero score. Obtaining a bronze under those circumstances is an excellent achievement.”
Saadiq matriculated after being selected for the South African team, and is currently a medical student at the University of Cape Town. In his career choice he follows in the footsteps of his father, Dr Shabir Moolla, who is a general practitioner in Cape Town. Mark Danoher has also matriculated since being selected, and is studying Computer Science at the University of Cape Town.
Robert Ketteringham and Schalk-Willem Krüger are still at school, and will have an opportunity to qualify for IOI 2009, which will be held in Bulgaria.
It was not all work for the team. Before and after the competition days they had opportunities to see more of Egypt visiting the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza, cruise on the Nile and visit the Red Sea. Schalk-Willem accepted a “free” ride on a camel only to discover that the camel driver wanted a substantial amount to let him off the camel again. This problem was solved by one of the Egyptian guides – without a computer – but with loud voices and much waving of the arms.
The winner at the International Olympiad in Informatics this year was Huacheng Yu of China. Second was Panupong Pasupat from Thailand, while third was shared between Dong Zhou of China and Marcin Koscienicki of Poland.
There were very few female participants at the IOI, but the first top female participant, Danqi Chen (China), managed a very respectable gold medal.
Photos are available on request.
Please contact info@olympiad.org.za
Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: SA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
COMPUTER OLYMPIAD FINALISTS
The Top 50 schools and students who participated in the Second Round of the Standard Bank/Computer Society of South Africa Computer Olympiad were announced in Cape Town today, together with the names of the learners who have been invited to take part in the Final Round.
22,765 students from 361 schools took part in the First Round of the Computer Olympiad in March. Of these 2,714 students from 181 schools qualified to participate in the Second Round. The top 13 students from the Second Round will participate in the Final Round on 27 and 28 September at the University of Cape Town.
Peter Waker, Manager of the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad, is delighted with the results. “Many schools are using the First Round of the Computer Olympiad as an aptitude test to see if learners should consider a career in IT. It is encouraging to see the number of First Round entries every year. It proves that there is an increasing interest in ICT as a career among learners.”
A great attraction is the additional R100 000 in prize money made available by Mark Shuttleworth for participants using Python. Python is the Open Source programming language used by Mark to write the computer software that made him a billionaire. Unlike commercial programming languages, Python is available free of charge. (www.python.org)
Marco Gallotta, a leading member of the Scientific Committee which set the questions, added: “The questions in the Second Round were very challenging, and the average learner did not score very high. To our surprise a small group of learners succeeded in scoring close to full marks.”
An unusually large number of Grade 11 participants have made their way to the Final Round for 2008. Francois Conradie from De Kuilen High; Schalk-Willem Krüger from Ferdinand Postma High; Graham Manuell from De La Salle Holy Cross; Kosie van der Merwe from Brackenfell High; James Lewis from Parel Vallei High and Gwylim Ashley from Oakhill School.
An unusual achiever in the 2008 Computer Olympiad top 50 is Rynhardt Kruger from the Pioneer School, who entered through neighbouring school, Worcester Gymnasium. Pioneer School is a school for Blind and partially sighted learners situated in Worcester in the Western Cape. Rynhardt is blind, but despite this handicap he succeeded in bringing his school into the top 50 Olympiad participating schools in the country. Like other blind students, Rynhardt makes use of a text-to-sound programme and an electronic Braille pad. Computer programming is not Rynhardt’s only passion. He is an eager member of the school choir and recently joined them for a tour of the country.
Asked about future trends, Peter Waker answered: “While it is encouraging that the number of First Round entries is so high, it is also a concern that the number of entries in the Second Round is dropping. This is a result of fewer and fewer schools offering Computer Programming courses – mostly as a result of a chronic shortage of teachers to offer the subject. Many schools are switching to a new subject “Computer Application Technology” (CAT) which teaches the use of common applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, etc. The eventual result of this will be that students will enter or avoid a tertiary programming course without having any idea what programming is, whether they like it or are suited to it. Some students who should have pursued a career in ICT will not do so; some who should have avoided ICT will waste a year on a course which does not interest them. Some-how an introduction to programming should be included in another subject or at least in the new subject “Computer Application Technology”.
Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: SA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
YOUNG COMPUTER WHIZZES GO TO EGYPT
A South African Team to take part in the International Olympiad in Informatics in Egypt has been announced. The team will compete with young people from 80 other countries for Gold, Silver and Bronze in computer programming.
After winning through a rigorous four-stage selection process which started in April 2007 with
34 000 participants in the First Round of the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad, four of the best young programmers have been selected. They are (in alphabetical order):
Mark Danoher from Pearson High School, Port Elizabeth (now at the University of Cape Town)
Schalk-Willem Krüger from Ferdinand Postma High School, Potchefstroom (currently in Grade 11)
Haroon Moolla from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (currently in Grade 12)
Saadiq Moolla from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (now at the University of Cape Town)
The reserve is:
Robert Ketteringham from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (currently in Grade 12)
The Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad which serves as the selection vehicle for the team to take part in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) invites participation from all high schools in South Africa. The four team members and reserve were part of the close on 34 000 participants in the First Round, 3 300 participants in the Second Round and 22 participants in the Third Round in 2007. The finalists from 2007 received further training during 2008 before the team of four was selected to go to the International Olympiad in Informatics.
The Team Leaders will be Peter Waker, Manager of the Olympiad and Marco Gallotta, of the Committee that sets the Olympiad questions.
For the first time ever two brothers have made it to be selected for the IOI team. They are Haroon and Saadiq Moolla both from Rondebosch Boys’ High and sons of Dr and Mrs Moolla from Cape Town.
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Mark Danoher was the winner of the Standard Bank Trophy for the highest score and the Gold Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad, while he was a Grade 12 learner at Pearson High in Port Elizabeth. He also won a R30 000 prize for being the highest scoring Python user that year. He entered the Computer Olympiad for the challenge and for the development it offers. This year he is participating in his second Olympiad in Informatics. He was a member of his school’s 1st Squash team and among his other interests is juggling. Mark has started his studies for BSc, Computer Science at the University of Cape Town.
Schalk-Willem Krüger won a Bronze Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad – as well as a R10 000 prize as a Python user. He is currently in Grade 11 at Ferdinand Postma High in Potchefstroom. Schalk-Willem, who took part in the Olympiad to develop his programming skills, was the youngest finalist in 2006 and again in 2007 – in fact he is the youngest finalist this century.
Haroon Moolla won a Silver Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad while in Grade 11 at Rondebosch Boys’ High. He has a string of Olympiad experiences in Maths and Science. He is a regular chess player, a runner and part of his school’s Community Service society.
Saadiq Moolla, older brother of Haroon, was a finalist in the 2006 Computer Olympiad and won a Silver Medal in 2007, while he was a Grade 12 learner at Rondebosch Boys’ High. Saadiq is a veteran of about every Olympiad there is: the Inter-provincial Maths Olympiad, the South African Maths Olympiad, the Pan-African Maths Olympiad, the International Maths Olympiad and the National Science Olympiad. While still at school, he was also a Western Province Chess player, an A-team Table Tennis player and had interests in Soccer, Squash, Swimming, Cycling and the Piano. This year he started his MBChB at the University of Cape Town.
_______________________________________________________________
Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: CSSA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
EXCEPTIONAL COMPUTER OLYMPIAD RESULTS
When announcing the Computer Olympiad results for 2007 in Cape Town this week, Peter Waker, CSSA Vice President for Education and Training remarked on how unique this year’s results have been.
For the first time ever in the Computer Olympiad finals:
- Three girls among the finalists
- Two bothers in the finals
- One school had four finalists
- Four medal winners from the same school
- Two brothers winning medals
- Half the medals go to historically disadvantaged individuals.
The Computer Olympiad is an annual competition to identify, encourage and reward programming skills among high school learners. The competition attracted nearly 33,000 entries for the First Round this year, and 3,300 for the Second Round. Twenty-two learners were invited to take part in the Final Round which took place at the University of Cape Town on 15 and 16 September. The winners were announced at a gala function at the Shuttleworth Foundation on Monday evening.
The Gold Medal, Standard Bank Trophy and R41,000 was won by Mark Danoher, a Grade 12 student at Pearson High in Port Elizabeth. This is the third time that Mark has reached the Computer Olympiad Finals. In 2006 he won a Bronze Medal – and a place in the team that competed in the International Olympiad in Croatia.
The two Silver Medals went to brothers Saadiq and Haroon Moolla, both from Rondebosch Boys’ High. Saadiq, now in Grade 12, was a Bronze Medal winner in last year’s Finals. Brother Haroon, who is only in Grade 11 now, participated in the Finals for his first time.
To make the Rondebosch domination complete, Raeez Lorgat (Grade 12) and Robert Ketteringham (Grade 11) won two of the three Bronze Medals on offer. Raeez has the distinction of having won the Computer Programming section of the Intel Science and Engineering Fair in the USA, and having a minor planet named after him.
Peter Waker, who organises the computer Olympiad, remarked: “The most medal winners we have ever had from one school is two. Now we have four from the same school, and what is more, two are brothers.”
The only non-Rondebosch participant to get a Bronze Medal was young Schalk-Willem Krüger, from Grade 10 at Ferdinand Postma High School in North West Province. Schalk-Willem, who skipped a Grade or two, participated for the second year. Last year he was the youngest participant this century, this year he is the youngest medal winner this century. [The youngest ever was Bruce Merry who won a Silver Medal while still in Grade 7 in 1995.]
Remarked Mike Murphy of Sponsor Standard Bank: “The aim of the Olympiad is to identify, encourage and reward programming skills. The Olympiad shows that South Africa has the talent, but it needs to be developed and nurtured.”
PYTHON PRIZES
IT multi-billionaire, Mark Shuttleworth, donated R100 000 in prize money for top six the participants who use the computer language Python in the Final Round of the competition. This was the language used by Mark Shuttleworth to develop the software on which his first successful business was built. By offering these prizes he wants to offer other young South Africans some of the same experiences and opportunities he had.
The Python Prizes were awarded as follows:
R30 000: Mark Danoher from Grade 12 at Pearson High, Port Elizabeth, EC
R20 000: Raeez Lorgat from Grade 12 at Rondebosch Boys’ High, WC
R20 000: Robert Ketteringham, Grade 11 at Rondebosch Boys’ High, WC
R10 000: Schalk-Willem Krüger, Grade 10 at Ferdinand Postma, NW
R10 000: Francois Conradie, Grade 11 at De Kuilen High, WC
R10 000: Francois van Niekerk, Grade 12, Parel Vallei High, WC
Karien Bezuidenhout of the Shuttleworth Foundation was inspired by the participants: “It is immensely rewarding and encouraging to note that not only do these medal winners possess excellent programming skills, they also already have their own visions of how these may be applied in future for the benefit of society, for example to provide affordable, wide-spread, broadband internet access to South Africans.”
FAREWELL
At the function, the Computer Olympiad said farewell to long-time head of the Computer Olympiad Scientific Committee, Donald Cook. Mr Cook was part of the group that set in motion the establishment of a Computer Olympiad in 1983 and has been head of the committee that sets the questions and checks the results since 1995. He will retire to Bredasdorp.
Added Donald Cook: “I have been privileged to be part of the development of the Computer Olympiad and its infrastructure. However, even more importantly I have been privileged to be part of the development and growth of many remarkable young people.”
Photos available on request.
Complete list of Final Round participants available on request.
_______________________________________________________________
Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
TWO SA STUDENTS WIN MEDALS AT INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIAD
Two South African students won medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) held in Zagreb, Croatia. The two are part of a team of four that was selected from 33 000 participants in last year’s Standard Bank Computer Olympiad.
The IOI is an annual competition for young computer programmers. It is held in a different country every year. This year 282 participants from 73 countries took part. The competition itself takes place over two days. On each of the competition days, the participants receive three problems. They have five hours to write the computer programs to solve these problems. After 5 hours the evaluators use data sets of increasing complexity to check if the program can provide the correct answers in the allocated time – often less than half a second.
The two medal winners from South Africa:
Ralf Kistner, the 2006 Standard Bank Trophy winner for the highest mark in the South African Computer Olympiad – when he was in Grade 12. Ralf is now a first year student at the University of Stellenbosch.
Ralf is a regular participant in Maths Olympiads, having taken part in the 2004 Pan-African Maths Olympiad and the 2005 International Maths Olympiad. This is Ralf’s second year of participation in the IOI. He also won a medal at IOI 2006 in Mexico.
Ralf lists his hobbies as climbing, programming and maths.
Dirk B Coetzee, from Ceres, who won his place in the South African IOI team while he was in grade 12, can also boast a medal. He is currently studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch.
The other two team members were Charles Bradshaw from Rondebosch Boys’ High and Mark Danoher from Pearson High in Port Elizabeth. Both did comparatively well, but missed getting medals. Charles is at the University of Cape Town this year, but Mark is still at school and could therefore have another shot at winning IOI medals in 2008.
The team was delighted with the experience. “We are proud of the medals, but we also loved the opportunity to mix with young people from mo re than 70 other countries. The organizers gave us plenty of time to make new friends.”
Peter Waker, Vice President (Education & Training) of the Computer Society of South Africa comments: “It is amazing that a small player like South Africa can do so well in a competition with the rest of the world. The USA, Russia, China and Poland walk off with most medals, but two bronze medals for our chaps; that is a credible result
No one had a perfect score. Top was Tomasz Kulczynski of Poland with 95,6%, and second was Yi Yang from China with 92,5%. Four students even ended two days of competition with a total score of zero.
Donald Cook, team leader, reported that “One of the second day questions was extremely difficult, and only 3 out of 282 contestants received full marks for the most difficult question.”
In the Croatian capital Zagreb, there was no evidence of the civil war which raged in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, but when the participants went further south to visit the Plitvice Lakes and the Nikola Tesla Centre, they passed buildings still pockmarked from machine gun fire and the occasional burned down house which had not yet been repaired.
A number of senior delegations, including South Africa, were invited to coffee with the Vice-President of Croatia. Like most Croatians she wanted to make sure the teams were well fed.
“I have heard no complaints,” the Croatian organizer assured her quickly.
“I have heard many complaints,” the South African Delegation Leader chipped in.
A deathly silence fell round the table.
“The food is too good, there is too much and we are all getting fat.”
The entire delegation consisted of:
Charles Bradshaw from Rondebosch Boys’ High (now at the University of Cape Town)
Dirk B Coetzee from Stellenbosch High School (now at the University of Stellenbosch)
Mark Danoher from Pearson High School, Port Elizabeth (currently in Grade 12)
Ralf Kistner from Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch (now at the University of Stellenbosch)
Peter Waker: Olympiad Administrator
Donald Cook: Lecturer at UCT,Team Leader
Marco Gallotta: Deputy Team Leader
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Press Release by:
Peter Waker
Manager: Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad
Ph: 021-448-7864
Fax: 021-447-8410
e-mail: info@olympiad.org.za
