Nathan (Year 11) has triumphantly returned to Australia with a silver medal.
He recently travelled to Sucre, Bolivia for the 37th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which sees outstanding students from around the world compete in an algorithmic competition. Students go head-to-head on problem analysis, design of algorithms and data structures, programming, and testing.
Ranking 40th of 329 participants, this result is an incredible step up from the bronze medal earned in Egypt last year. Here are his reflections on the event:
The IOI competition took place over two days. Each day had three problems over five hours – a lot longer than any school exam! Each problem was an algorithmic task where we had to write code that would solve a problem.
For example, a task might provide some cities and the lengths of roads connecting them, and the program would have to find the shortest distance from one city to another.
I particularly enjoyed this year because the problems were more what we call ‘non-standard’ – rather than relying on learnt algorithms, techniques and data structures, they involved more thinking and problem solving than usual.
It was my first time visiting South America, and Sucre has definitely left me a good impression. Although we didn’t really get much of a chance to experience local culture, the locals we encountered, like our team guide, were all really nice. Sucre was also probably the highest city I’ve ever been to, at almost 3,000 metres above sea level! The food was great too; it was very multicultural.
The most memorable thing from the experience was probably not the competition itself but the people from other teams that we met. I made friends with students from teams all over the world, like Canada, China, Japan, the UK and the US. I think the most enjoyable part was being able to spend a week amongst so many like-minded people and develop new relationships.
31 July 2026
Year 11 student Lukas will represent Australia at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Canada this August, a significant achievement that reflects years of dedication, discipline and hard work in and out of the pool.
29 July 2026
At Knox, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to learn in an environment where they feel known, supported and equipped to succeed.
14 July 2026
Knox Grammar is proud to once again support the important work of Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury by hosting the Lifeline Book Fair over the school holidays.
