Two students from Dublin and Tipperary won gold medals at the the 20th anniversary All-Ireland Programming Olympiad (AIPO) National Finals at DCU’s School of Computing.
First place winner of the senior section was 16-year-old Áron Hoffman from Dublin, while In the junior section John Ryan (14), a student at St Joseph’s College, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary, carried off the top prize in the Junior section.
The competition for second-level students – sponsored by the School of Computing and Fidelity Investments – pits young programmers against each other for the chance to compete for a place on Team Ireland at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Taiwan in July 2014.
The top seven competitors from the senior section of the national finals will now be invited to a three-day bootcamp at DCU in June where they will be tutored by academics, Fidelity Investments architects and previous competitors. The seven will be whittled down to four who will go on to the International Olympiad.
The students going through to bootcamp are: Abdullah Mohammad (18), Carrigaline Community School, Cork; Áron Hoffmann (16), Luttrellstown Community College, Dublin; Colm Hickey (15), Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig; Conor Flynn (18), St Joseph’s College, Nun’s Island, Galway; Daniel Mulcahy (16), Gonzaga College, Dublin; Maciej Goszczycki (16), Colaiste Craobh Abhan, Kilcoole, Wicklow; and Richard Tynan (17), Cistercian College, Roscrea.
Gary Conway from the School of Computing, who co-ordinates the AIPO, explained: “With the buoyant IT industry in Ireland, second-level students are becoming increasingly more interested in computer programming. This competition is targeted at those students and helps equip them with the skills they need, while also furthering the awareness of computer programming as an exciting and fulfilling career. These students represent the very best talent that we are striving to attract when we designed our new portfolio entry undergraduate degree, Computational Problem Solving and Software Development (CPSSD). Three past graduates of the AIPO competition are now students on this new degree course.”
The preliminary round of the competition was held online, with the final five-hour round held in the School of Computing, DCU. The programing challenges are graded as students advance in the competition which is supported by Fidelity Investments.
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