RIYADH: The Saudi informatics team won three awards at the 38th International Olympiad in Informatics, hosted by Uzbekistan from Aug. 9-16, with 386 students representing 97 countries.
The achievement brings the Kingdom’s total international awards since joining the Olympiad to 14, including one silver medal, eight bronze medals and five certificates of merit, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The silver medal won by student Mohammed Al-Asmari marks a historic achievement for the Kingdom, as it is the first silver won by a Saudi participant since the Kingdom began taking part in the Olympiad.
The accomplishment also reflects the Saudi team’s continued improvement in international competition, following its success in winning one bronze medal and two certificates of merit in last year’s edition.
Saudi Arabia was represented by four high school students trained under the supervision of the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, in partnership with the Ministry of Education.
The students underwent a comprehensive training and qualification program that included intensive training camps and selection competitions to assess their abilities and identify top performers.
They also took part in simulation competitions designed to develop their problem-solving and strategy-building skills, leading to the selection of the national team for the Olympiad.
First launched in 1989, the Olympiad is a premier global computer science competition for high school students, focusing on problem analysis, algorithm design and programming.
It aims to identify young talent in informatics and develop their logical thinking, problem-solving skills and ability to build effective software solutions.
The contest encourages students to specialize in computer science while fostering communication and the exchange of expertise among students, specialists and informatics teachers from around the world.
