TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's team at the 34th annual International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), a computer programming competition for high school students, captured two gold medals and two silver medals.
The Ministry of Education's K-12 Education Administration (K12EA) on Monday (Aug. 15) issued a press release announcing that out of 349 students from 88 regions and countries, four students representing Taiwan won two golds and two silvers. This enabled the delegation to tie for fourth place overall internationally with South Korea.
The two gold medal winners were Liu En-i (劉恩溢), a student at National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park, who individually ranked 19th, and Hou Hsin-wei (侯欣緯), a student at The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, who had an individual ranking of 29th.
The two silver medal winners were both students of Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Liu Che (劉澈), who earned an individual ranking of 49th, and Lai Chao-hsun (賴昭勳), who was ranked 80th. According to K12EA, due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, the competition was both conducted in person and online.
A total of 70 teams took part in the in-person competition in Indonesia's Special Region of Yogyakarta. Another 18 teams participated in the online competition.
The delegation set off for Indonesia on Aug. 6 to compete. The closing ceremony and award ceremony were held at 6 p.m. local time on Sunday (Aug. 14) and the team was slated to return to Taiwan on Monday.
Taiwanese who medal in the competition can be recommended for admission to various university departments. In addition, those who win gold, silver, and bronze medals will receive cash prizes of NT$200,000, NT$100,000, and NT$50,000, respectively.
Taiwan has participated in the IOI since 1994 and its competitors over the years have won 24 golds, 58 silvers, and 27 bronzes. The administration stated that the competition will be held in Hungary next year and pledged that Taiwan will continue to select outstanding students to participate in the competition to "promote international exchanges and win honors, and to cultivate more international information talent for the country."
