Pinehurst students Yicheng Wang and Jerry Yang have returned from Astana, Kazakhstan, with an exceptional result after representing New Zealand at the 3rd International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI).
Held from 2 to 8 August, the IOAI is an International Science Olympiad for high school students, bringing together young people from around the world to test their knowledge and problem solving across areas including machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing.
Yicheng and Jerry were two of just four students selected for the New Zealand team, following a national selection process that included AI problem solving, advanced algorithms and applied AI challenges.
In Astana, the New Zealand team achieved an outstanding result, taking 1st place in the world in the Team Challenge, competing among 128 teams from 108 countries. They also received the Best Demonstration Award for their project.
The Team Challenge put students’ skills into practice in a very real way. Teams worked through a simulation phase involving task analysis, algorithm design and programming, before the top performers progressed to a final using physical robots. It required students to take what they knew about AI and apply it collaboratively to solve complex problems under competition conditions.
There was individual success too, with Yicheng earning a Bronze Medal in the individual competition, adding another significant achievement to the week.
For Yicheng and Jerry, the experience offered the opportunity to work alongside some of the brightest young minds in AI from around the world, in a field that continues to develop at extraordinary speed.
To have two Pinehurst students make up half of the New Zealand team is something very special, and to see them return home as world champions in the Team Challenge makes this an achievement well worth celebrating.
