Kiwis among world's top young programmers

Two New Zealand students won bronze at the International Olympiad in Informatics last weekend.

Two New Zealand high school students are among the world's top young computer programmers.

The pair, Jamie McCloskey from Akaroa and Boris Pfahringer from Hamilton, won bronze in the 2009 International Olympiad in Informatics, held in Bulgaria at the weekend.

The olympiad is the world's foremost and most prestigious programming contest for high school students, and the pair are thrilled with their success.

"To be one of the medal winners is fantastic," said Pfahringer, a student at Hamilton Boys' High School.

The competition took place over two five-hour days and the students were given four programming problems each day.

"We had to find and implement efficient algorithms to solve the problems, with run-time and memory limitations on the resulting program," said Pfahringer.

"The contest was very difficult and it was a nerve-wracking wait for the medal ceremony."

McCloskey, a year 11 student at Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, was well aware of the standard expected as he also represented New Zealand last year in Cairo.

"The competition is the culmination of months of hard work," he said.

"However, we wouldn't be here without the efforts of others. We get lots of support from the New Zealand Olympiad in Informatics organisation (NZOI), from our schools, from individual mentors and of course sponsors who have assisted with travel and training."

There were 310 contestants from about 80 countries taking part in the competition.

New Zealand first competed in the IOI in 2006 and this was the second year in a row that Kiwis have appeared on the medal list.

Margot Phillipps, executive director of the NZOI, said she was excited that New Zealand had proven itself again this year.

"We are a small country, with no national computer science curriculum so winning two medals is a huge achievement. We have demonstrated that our students can hold their own at international levels."

She hoped that the success of the team would inspire and encourage other students.

- NZPA