PHL team bags silver at int’l computer science tilt

In a display of IT brilliance, the Philippines bagged silver at one of the world’s most prestigious computer science competitions.

Dan Alden Baterisna of Colegio San Agustin Makati won a silver medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). The IOI 2018 took place in Tsukuba, Japan last September 1 to 8. Baterisna earned his silver medal for being among the top 25% of all participants. This is the Philippines’ second-ever silver medal from the competition, after four years of participation.

The IOI 2018: A showcase of IT skills

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) pits the best and brightest students in the fields of IT and computer science from different countries. The IOI is one of twelve internationally recognized science olympiads.

Each participating country sends a team of up to four representatives, accompanied by a team leader and a deputy leader. Competing individually, contestants must solve informatics problem sets (usually three problems, with a five-hour solving window) over the course of two days. The tasks require the use of basic IT skills (e.g. problem analysis, algorithm design, programming, testing, etc.).

This year, a total of 335 participants from 87 countries joined the IOI, including China, Russia, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam, the US, Australia and the Philippines.

Pinoys got IT in the bag

Aside from Baterisna, the Philippine delegation to the IOI 2018 included Carl Joshua Quines of Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science (NCR), Franz Louis Cesista of Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus (Region VIII), and Andrew Ting of Xavier School San Juan (NCR). The participants were selected from the top students who joined the 2018 National Olympiad in Informatics – Philippines (NOI.PH 2018). The selection committee was made up of UP graduates who had previously joined and won university-level programming contests.

Kevin Atienza and Vernon Gutierrez served as the team’s leader and deputy leader, respectively. The students received training from their leaders, as well as team coaches Robin Yu, Kyle See, JD Dantes, Josh Quinto, Jared Asuncion, Payton Yao, and Tim Dumol.

The Philippine team also received sponsorship and support from DNL (c/o Alvin Lao), Pointwest Digital Group (c/o Beng Coronel), CustomThread (c/o Erik Sy), and Tonette Rivera.

You may visit the following links for more information:

• 2018 Philippine Delegation Profiles: https://noi.ph/philippine-team-ioi-2018/
• The Organizing Team: https://noi.ph/the-organizing-team/
• IOI 2018 Official Results: http://stats.ioinformatics.org/contestants/2018

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Author: Mikael Angelo Francisco

Bitten by the science writing bug, Mikael has years of writing and editorial experience under his belt. As the editor-in-chief of FlipScience, Mikael has sworn to help make science more fun and interesting for geeky readers and casual audiences alike.

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