UK call-up to international informatics olympiad for Perse student
Toby Collins (Upper Sixth) has been chosen to represent the UK at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
He has been named in a four-strong team to take part in the competition in Indonesia in August after an impressive performance in the British Informatics Olympiad (BIO) finals.
Having qualified from round one of the BIO, Toby participated in the squad selection camp at Cambridge’s Trinity College and was thrilled to be chosen for the UK team following an intense five-hour programming exam.
“I’ve entered the competition for a few years now, through the Programming Club at school, and I’ve progressed further each time, so I was really pleased to be selected because it’s a very tough competition,” said Toby.
Toby enjoyed taking part in the final training camp and felt he gained a lot from the experience.
He said: “As well as the main competition, we did some practice problems and had a training seminar and some lectures.
“It was fun and it was great to be with other people interested in the same things to bounce ideas off.
“The seminar really helped because we learned new ways of approaching problems that I hadn’t really considered before. The atmosphere in general was really nice and I got to have a look around the college and get a feel for the university style of teaching, which was really useful.”
Toby is now relishing the prospect of taking part in the IOI in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the Cambridge or Oxford of Indonesia and is the ancient capital of the country, so there’s lots of culture and academia there.
“It looks like a really nice location and we’ll have a few days when we can meet the other teams and have a look around.
“I’ll be really pleased if I can get a medal, but I’m happy just to have got this far because it’s such a tough competition and I’ll just give it my best shot when I get there.”
Published