Egypt snatches Bronze in 28th IOI 2016

Egyptian student Mahmoud Badaway has won a bronze medal in the 28th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) which took place on August 12-19 in Kazan, Russia. Egypt, represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), participated in this year’s IoI, with a team comprising four competitors.

Since 2005, Egypt has been taking part in the IOI; it hosted the competition in 2008. Over the past years, Egypt became a strong competitor in the IOI, receiving four silver and thirteen bronze medals which facilitated the provision of job opportunities for participants in the world’s leading information technology companies.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has been keen to support and sponsor the participation of Egypt in the IOI. Those medals reflect the fruitful outcome of the Ministry’s strategy encouraging the use of information technology among youth through specialized contests in informatics.

IOI is one of the most recognized computer science competitions in the world with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNECO) and the International Federation for Information Procession (IFIP) being patrons. It is an annual international informatics competition for youngsters from 6 to 20 years old, organized in one of the member states in the International Informatics Committee.

Contestants have to show basic IT skills like problem analysis, designing algorithms and data structures, programming and testing. The idea of the competition was first introduced during the 24th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris by the Bulgarian Delegate Professor Bojidar Sendov in October 1987. In 1989, the first IOI was held in Bulgaria to become an event hosted every year by a different country.