Silver International Medal in Computing
Wednesday 5 October 2005

Martin Orr receiving the 2005 IOI Silver medal from Ms. Beata Fecko, with Charlie Daly and Ciarán O Conaire, Irish Team Leaders

An Irish student has again won a silver medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Martin Orr, the Methodist College, Belfast was a member of the Irish team that represented Ireland at the 2005 IOI in the WSB–NLU Business and Management College in Nowy Sacz, Poland on the 18-25 August last. He was also awarded the €1,500 IBM Scholarship for winning the IOI silver medal.

Martin has represented Ireland at the IOI for the past four years and had already won bronze, silver and gold medals for which Mr. Barry O'Brien, IBM presented him with the "Pauline Knight Outstanding Achievement Award" in DCU in January.

The Irish IOI 2005 Team was selected from the finalists at the IBM/DCU Computer Programming Olympiad held in DCU in January. The team followed an online training programme designed and implemented by Charlie Daly & Ciarán O Conaire. They also attended an intensive residential course in the School of Computing, DCU prior to their departure to the Poland.

Charlie Daly (2005 Team leader) has been the Irish IOI Team Leader since 1993 when Ireland first participated in the IOI in Argentina. He and Michael Cotter were the co-founders of the IBM/DCU All Ireland Schools Programming Competition in 1994. This was later incorporated into the IBM/DCU Irish Science Olympiad when Ireland began participating in the IChO, IBO and IPhO.

Ciarán O Conaire (2005 Deputy Team Leader) was a bronze medal winner at the 1999 IOI in Turkey. Later that year he became an undergraduate student in DCU and was awarded a first class honours B.Eng. (Telecommunications Engineering) degree in 2003. He is presently pursuing a PhD with Dr. Noel O Connor in the Centre for Digital Video Processing.

IOI 2005 Irish Team
Martin Orr, Methodist College, Belfast, Co. Antrim
Cian Hughes, Gonzaga College, Dublin
Alex Clossick, Clongowe’s Wood College, Co. Kildare
Stephen Dolan, Colaiste Cholmcille, Co. Donegal
Reserves
Barry Hurley, Gaelcholaiste Choilm, Ballincollig, Co. Cork
Yann Sweeney St. Columba’s Comprehensive College, Co. Donegal

Team leaders
Charlie Daly & Ciarán O Conaire

Martin Orr also represented GB at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) in Mexico in July where he won a Gold IMO medal, having already won a bronze and silver in previous years.

Contact:
Michael A. Cotter, Director, Irish Science Olympiad, Dublin City University, Dublin 9.
E-mail: michael.cotter@dcu.ie