Serial Olympiad competitor Aaron scoops a bronze
AARON Naidu, a first- year student at the University of Kwazulu- Natal ( UKZN), has raised the flag high for the country after he became one of two South African contestants to scoop a bronze at this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics.
The competition was one of five international Science Olympiads, which aimed to bring together students who excelled in a given field as well as share information about other countries’ scientific knowledge and cultural experiences.
The informatics event is hosted yearly in a different country with various countries represented by teams of four. Contestants are tasked with creating computer programs which are marked and checked with a computer program.
Naidu, 18, who is studying towards a BSC in data science and is a former Eden College pupil, is a serial competitor at local and national Olympiads, and said that he was elated with the result.
“It feels really good to see all the experience that I have accumulated through the Olympiads I’ve taken part in finally pay off. I was a bit nervous while awaiting the announcement of the results, but I am thrilled to have a medal from an international competition.”
The Olympiad was due to take place in July, but because of the Covid19 pandemic it had to be postponed to last month, with competitors participating remotely, to Naidu’s disappointment. “Placing to win a medal is indeed special, but the only disappointment from the competition is that we weren’t able to travel to Singapore and have the opportunity to take in new experiences and see different ways to look at not only science, but life too,” said Naidu.
The 2020 online event was hosted at Stellenbosch University for three of the contestants, while Naidu participated from his home in Durban.
As one former organiser remarked, the online contest was “super smooth”. The Olympiad ran from Singapore at the same time worldwide. The organisers met at 6am ( SA time), then followed translation for four hours for non- English speaking countries.
Although another teammate, Andi Qu, of St John’s College in Gauteng, also walked away with a bronze medal, Naidu said that South Africa still had some way to go to catch up with other countries in computer science.
“Our performance as a team wasn’t too bad as we didn’t finish near the bottom and, although it was enjoyable to see where we stand internationally. There is quite some room for improvement.
“One of the ways that could happen is for Information Technology to be offered as a subject in all schools so South African pupils aren’t at a disadvantage.”
Naidu said that the next stage of his journey would be pursuing a career that would incorporate his love of maths, informatics and data science.
Next year, the informatics event will be held in June.