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OLYMPIADS IN INFORMATICS:
Country Experiences and Developments
Introduction
The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is one of the most prominent computer science competitions
in the world. It was initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
and endorsement by the International Federation on Information Processing (IFIP).
The IOI is a truly international event, having been held on five continents and drawing delegations from six.
It has been held every year since its foundation in 1989: Bulgaria, Belarus, Greece (twice), Germany,
Argentina, Sweden, The Netherlands, Hungary, South Africa, Portugal, Turkey, China, Finland, Korea, USA,
Poland, Mexico and this year in Croatia. It is thanks to the hard work of these host countries in organizing
and funding the olympiad that the IOI continues to flourish.
The competition sets tasks that are of an algorithmic nature, however the contestants have to show basic skills
including problem analysis, design (and knowledge) of algorithms and data structures, in addition to the
programming and testing their solutions. The winners of the IOI belong, no doubt, to the best young computer
scientists of the world.
The IOI regulations define its General Assembly, the body that is made up from members of each of the
participating delegations, as "a temporary, short-term committee during IOI". This has often been
characteristic of the informatics olympiads community as a whole. We come together during the year
for a variety of regional and world-wide events, before returning to our respective countries to run
our national contests in our own individual vacuums. Yes, we communicate during these national and
international events, but too frequently these are conversations between small groups, if not
individuals, and often such conversations are piecemeal and quickly forgotten.
Many of the issues at the national level differ from country to country. We have different educational
systems and the availability and take-up of information technology varies, but even here there are as
many similarities as differences. We also face many of the same problems: How do we pick our students?
How do we train them? What is suitable material? etc. How about those outside of our community?
There are currently around 200 countries in the world and about 80 participating at the IOI. How many
of those other countries have national contests, or want to have national contests, and how can we
as a community help them?
As a community, we have a great deal of accumulated experience gained by running our respective contests.
The IOI presents an ideal forum for discussing these experiences and associated issues.
It brings together this experience and knowledge from across the globe and offers a regular, annual forum.
There is also the opportunity for sharing the experiences of our community with the local educators
in host countries. During some previous IOIs, attempts have been made to bring delegation leaders
and other educators together, e.g. workshops in South Africa (1997) and Finland (2001).
In Mexico (2006), the Chilean delegation leader Alexander Tobanov made a challenge to start organizing
half-day conferences during IOIs. During this year's pre-IOI meeting in March, the International Committee
agreed that it was time to start holding conferences in order to study our experiences and to develop
future plans. The Olympiads in Informatics conference, to be held jointly with and supported
by the IOI, was approved and the editorial board chosen.
The 1st Olympiads in Informatics conference puts attention on organizing olympiads
at the national level. The 17 papers selected for this inaugural conference discuss the running of
and issues facing several national olympiads. Some explore recent ideas and changes, and how experiments
with them have worked at the national level. Ideas which, in several cases, have been tried
simultaneously in other countries.
It is intended that this conference will have main topics each year. We have a lot of questions to be
dealt with: tasks developments, automatic testing systems, teaching programming methods, software for
training, curriculum, relations between other contests, etc... There are many such issues and we will
set out, if not to lay down answers then to lay down the questions and record how the community is
approaching them. We hope that that this will be a benefit, not just to the IOI community, but to
the wider community of educators in our field.
Thanks are due to everyone who has contributed to this conference. In particular, we would like to thank
Ivo eparovi and the Croatian organisation of this year's IOI for giving us the opportunity to host the
conference. Without their generous assistance it would not have been possible to hold this event.
Editorial board
Valentina Dagiene
Arturo Cepeda
Richard Forster
Krassimir Manev
PRESENTATIONS
Friday, August 17
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10:00
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Opening
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10:00-10:15
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R. O. Anido, R. M. Mendenico
Brazilian olympiad in informatics
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10:15-10:30
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P. Broanac
Regular competitions in Croatia
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10:30-10:45
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G. Casadei, B. Fadini, M. G. De Vita
Italian olympiads in informatics
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10:45-11:00
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L. Choijoovanchig, S. Uyanga., M. Dashnyam
The informatics olympiad in Mongolia
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11:00-11:15
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Coffee break
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11:15-11:30
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V. Dagiene, J. Skupiene
Contests in programming: quater century Lithuanian experience
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11:30-11:45
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K. Diks, M. Kubica, K. Stencel
Polish olympiad in informatics - 14 years of experience
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11:45-12:00
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M. Foriek
Slovak IOI 2007 team selection and preparation
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12:00-12:15
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M. Jancesk, V. Pacovski
Olympiads in informatics: Macedonian experience, needs, challenges
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12:15-12:30
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Coffee break
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12:30-12:45
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G. Kemken, G. Cormack, I. Munro, T. Vasiga
New tasks types at the Canadian computing competition
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12:45-13:00
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V. M. Kiryukhin
The modern contents of the Russian national olympiads in informatics
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13:00-13:15
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R. Kolstad, D. Piele
USA Computing Olympiad (USACO)
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13:15-13:30
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K. Manev, St. Kapralov, E. Kelevedjiev
Programming contests for school students in Bulgaria
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Sunday, August 19
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10:00-10:15
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M. Mare
Perspectives on grading systems
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10:15-10:30
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P. S. Pankov, T. R. Oruskulov
Tasks at Kyrgyzstani olympiads in informatics: experience and proposals
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10:30-10:45
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W. Pohl
Computer science contests in Germany
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10:45-11:00
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P. Ribeiro, P. Guerreiro
Increasing the appeal of programming contests with tasks involving graphical user interfaces and computer graphics
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11:00-11:15
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H. Wang, B. Yin, W. Li
Development and exploration of Chinese national olympiad in informatics (CNOI)
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11:15-11:30
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Coffee break
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11:30-13:30
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Discussion
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