Australian students shine in international maths and informatics Olympiads

Australian Maths Trust (AMT)

Two teams of Australian high school students have pushed through the extraordinary challenges of COVID to take home gold, silver and bronze in the world’s premiere maths and informatics competitions. All six Victorian students across both teams were able to compete despite the Stage 4 restrictions currently in place.

Supported by the Australian Maths Trust (AMT), six students competed in the 61st International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and four students competed in the 32nd International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). All 10 students took home medals with Australia ranking 8th in the world at the IMO.

AMT CEO Nathan Ford said, “Australia has an excellent reputation for producing young problem-solvers and to see our students reach such great heights on the top international stage is remarkable, especially during COVID.”

“Our students competed against 104 other countries in the IMO and 86 countries in the IOI and this is the second consecutive year that all Australian students who competed earned a medal,” he said.

Gold medallist Fredy Yip was Australia’s highest placed IMO competitor, coming in at 22nd out of 672 competitors. Tunan Shi was highest placed in the IOI with a silver medal and placing 69th out of 343 contestants.

AMT has been sending an Australian team to the IMO since 1981 and the IOI since 1992. The teams are selected from an annual program of competitions, training schools and mentoring.

“I would like to congratulate both Olympiad teams on their great results and thank our Directors of Training, Angelo Di Pasquale and Kevin Tran and their teams for their incredible support of this year’s competitors,” said Nathan.

AMT’s Olympiad programs are funded through the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda. They are also supported by the Trust’s National Sponsor of the Australian Informatics and Mathematical Olympiads, Optiver.

2020 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) Results

Student

Medal

School

Fredy Yip

Gold

Knox Grammar School

William Steinberg

Gold

Scotch College (Perth)

Andres Buritica

Silver

Scotch College (Melbourne)

Hadyn Tang

Silver

Trinity Grammar School

Yasiru Jayasooriya

Silver

James Ruse Agricultural High School

Zian Shang

Bronze

Scotch College (Melbourne)

2020 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) Results

Student

Medal

School

Tunan Shi

Silver

St Kevin’s College

Junhua Chen

Bronze

Caulfield Grammar School

Quang Ong

Bronze

John Monash Science School

Isaiah Iliffe

Bronze

Sydney Grammar School

/Public Release.