"Six Gold, One Silver": Russian Team Wins Major Victory at AI Olympiad

The second international Olympiad on artificial intelligence has ended in China. Russian schoolchildren have collected the most generous harvest of medals. The Russian team has 8 medals, of which 6 are gold, 1 is silver, and 1 is bronze.

Schoolchildren from 61 countries took part in the International Olympiad on Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) among high school students. Australia, Brazil, Hungary, China, Mexico, UAE, Poland, Singapore, USA, Sweden, Japan were represented. In total, there were more than 300 participants.

In the individual standings among the gold medalists, there is only one schoolboy from Moscow. Three winners are from St. Petersburg. One each from Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Ufa. Silver and bronze awards were won by students from two capitals – the official and the northern.

In the team round, the Russian team entered the top 10 teams on the first day of participation and won the silver medal.

— There were two rounds in total, — the coach of the Russian team said. — The guys competed for two days. On the first day, three tasks were offered according to the demo version. Such tasks with variations are repeated from year to year. And on the second day, three original tasks.

The tasks were very original and useful. They could be used in everyday life, in production, for research work.

— One of the original tasks was to program a robot to pick apples. It had to pick a fruit, put it in a basket and take it to the sorting place. At the same time, overcoming certain obstacles, — said Olympiad participant Danis Dinmukhametov from Moscow.

Other tasks were no less practical. The children were offered natural language processing. They had to guess the hidden word based on the hints. This was both a game and linguistic training.

And one of the tasks would be useful in nature conservation work. It was necessary to find the place where this animal is now, using photographs of an animal taken with a camera trap in a nature reserve.

Only 6 hours were given to complete three tasks. The intelligence competition was more like a race.

— At the Olympiad, it was necessary not so much to demonstrate your knowledge of AI and programming, but rather the ability to concentrate in a stressful situation. In a very short time, you need to come up with a program and have time to write it. That is, it was not knowledge that was assessed, but stress resistance. This is even more interesting, - said Konstantin Sigalov from St. Petersburg, a bronze medalist of the Olympiad.

The guys spent several months preparing. They trained for 10 hours a day. They solved demos and tried to predict what original tasks would be. This played a big role. The Russian team had an easier time in battle than in training.

- Some teams came unprepared. They didn't even open the typical tasks that are repeated from year to year, - the guys say.

The subject "Artificial Intelligence" is not yet in the school curriculum. Although there are already textbooks for senior classes on this course. But they study it - in clubs. All the guys who are part of the team prepared in this way: in additional classes, under the guidance of enthusiasts of their business.

There was a rigorous selection process for the Olympic AI team.

— We prepared from 10 am to 8 pm. It was hard to study. And the main fear was to let the school down. After all, during the preparation period, the school was accommodating. I listened to some lessons online, teachers worked with me individually. In some cases, they stayed after their work day to take my exams, — said Matvey Belyaev from Vladivostok. — And I was very happy when I brought home a gold medal. This is also a victory for my teachers.

Besides the school, relatives and the whole city were happy.

— There are 600 thousand people living in Vladivostok. And for the whole city – a gold medal. Of course, my relatives were very proud.

The winners of the Olympiad were determined by artificial intelligence. The guys sent their programs, and another program decided whose was better. The jury only accepted appeals and sorted the results.

- There were strong guys from Poland, Singapore, Romania. They also prepared well, - the schoolchildren said.

Now many of the participants have already entered the first year of university. They are going to devote the next year to studying. But if they receive offers to write useful programs, they are always ready, the winners said.