The six winners of the 19th Old Mutual/Computer Society of SA (CSSA) 2003 Computer Olympiad have been announced.
Computer Olympiad chairman Peter Waker says the gold medal was awarded to last year silver medallist, Linsen Loots, a Grade 12 student at Parel Vallei High in Somerset West. Loots also won R1 500 as well as R5 000 for his school.
The silver medals were awarded to Richard Starfield, a Grade 12 student at King David High in Johannesburg, and Marco Gallotta, a Grade 12 student from Rondebosch Boys High in Cape Town. They received R1 000 each and R3 000 for their schools.
The winners of the bronze medals were Marietjie Venter, a Grade 12 pupil at Stellenbosch High; Dirk Basson, a Grade 11 pupil from Diamantveld High School in Kimberley; and Nicholas Pilkington, a Grade 12 at Hilton College in Natal. They received R500 each and R2 000 for their schools.
"The six winners will now receive additional training in the form of correspondence training along with three training camps to be held in January, April and July next year at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The top four students will then be selected to participate in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Greece in August 2004," says Waker.
Loots has already participated in this year`s IOI in the US, where he won a silver medal. Westerford High School pupil Bruce Merry was SA`s only gold medallist winner at the competition. He was awarded a gold medal in 1999 and 2000.
"The IOI is structured in such a way that half the 280 pupils from the 70 countries attending receive medals with the top 8% of pupils receiving gold medals," Waker says.
This year`s Old Mutual/CSSA Olympiad was the first year in which the first round was a written exam. A record total of 10 618 pupils from 376 schools countrywide participated in the first round held in May.
"The first round was conducted as a talent search to identify young people who have an interest in computers and who have the potential to become computer programmers. The second round, held in August, saw that number reduced to 2 500 pupils, who were required to solve five problems in two hours. In the final round held at UCT, 12 finalists were given six difficult problems to solve over two periods of five hours," he says.
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