Team Ireland at IOI in Taipei

Irish student wins bronze medal at international coding competition

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Pictured: Gary Conway, Conor Griffin, Daniel Mulcahy, Aron Hoffman, Richard Tynan and Ximo Planells (right)

21 July 2014

Nineteen-year-old Richard Tynan from Cistercian College, Roscrea, clinched a bronze medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Taipei, Taiwan last week.

The IOI is the pinnacle of computer programming at the high school level; over 311 students from 82 countries attended this year’s event to solve six complex algorithmic problems over two days.

Gary Conway, who led the Irish delegation, said: “This is Ireland’s first medal in five years and a great achievement for Richard. To put it in perspective: the UK, Spain and Hungary also only received one bronze medal, so when you compare these populations, Ireland is definitely punching above its weight.”

The top eight teenagers from the national All Ireland Programming Olympiad (AIPO) were invited to a three-day training camp on DCU campus. The students were tutored in advanced competitive programming techniques enabling them to decipher and code a solution to International Olympiad problems.

Tynan was joined on the team by three other students: Conor Griffin (18) from Ardscoil Ris, Limerick; Aron Hoffman (17) from Luttrellstown Community College, Dublin; and Daniel Mulcahy (17) from Gonzaga College, Dublin.

After winning his medal, Tynan said: “This is my third and final year attending the IOI and I was determined to win a medal. I’m going to miss coming to the IOI now that I’m starting college. It’s been a wonderful experience visiting Taiwan and making new friends from around the world”.

Tynan has been invited to read Computer Science at Cambridge next year. Griffin is enrolling in DCU in September, while Hoffman and Mulcahy will be returning for the 2015 IOI competition, to be held in Kazakhstan.

TechCentral Reporters

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