Outstanding Achievement for Israel's Informatics Team

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which marked the end of the International Science Olympiad season, saw Israel's team achieve impressive results, with an unprecedented and highest achievement since 1996 - the year Israel began participating in the Olympiad.

At this year's International Olympiad in Informatics held in Hungary, Israel's team members won 3 gold medals and an honorable mention. The Olympiad included 351 participants from 90 countries around the world. The Olympiad consisted of 2 competition days, each lasting 5 hours, during which students were given three algorithmic questions that required out-of-the-box thinking and coding solutions.

The Ministry of Education and Maimonides Fund's Future Scientists Center lead the preparation of Israel's Science Teams in advance of the annual International Science Olympiads. Israel's Informatics Team is trained at Bar-Ilan University, led by a team of trainers including Academic Director Dr. Avshalom Elmalech, Head Trainer Ron Ryvchin, and team members Gonen Gazit, Yoav Katz, Ido Kessler, and Noam Gutterman.

 The Israel Informatics Team's winners are:

• Daniel Weber, 10th grade student, Ben Tzvi High School, Kiryat Ono - gold medalist
• Elazar Koren, 11th grade student, Yeshivat Tikva Yaakov, Sde Yaakov - gold medalist Alon Tanay, 11th grade student, De-Shalit High School, Rehovot - gold medalist
• Yuval Vaknin, 12th grade student, Tichonet, Tel Aviv - honorable mention

 Yoav Kish, Minister of Education: "I am proud of the team members - Daniel, Elazar, Alon, and Yuval, whose impressive achievement puts the Israeli education system at the forefront of the world stage. I congratulate them on their exceptional talent, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence, and thank them for the inspiration they provide to students in the education system. I have no doubt that many students will follow in their footsteps, achieve amazing results, and bring great pride to the State of Israel."

Meir Shimoni, Interim Director General of the Ministry of Education: "I congratulate our team members on their important achievements and the long and winding path they have taken to reach this wonderful accomplishment. Many partners and stakeholders contributed to this achievement, but I have no doubt that without the support of the dedicated education teams and the support of their wonderful families, it would not have been possible."

Yoram Ariav, Chairman of the Future Scientists Center: "Congratulations to Israel's Informatics Team, whose members achieved huge accomplishments and brought great pride to the State of Israel. The International Science Olympiad season ended with impressive and honorable achievements. This is a great opportunity to express appreciation to the members of Israel's Science Teams for their exceptional talent, determination, and relentless pursuit of excellence, as well as to the training staff and academic institutions for their quality guidance and training."

Eli Fried, Director General of the Future Scientists Center: "Israel's Science Teams demonstrated exceptional abilities this Olympiad season, and their members have become ambassadors of the State of Israel in the world. The Future Scientists Center will continue to work in partnership with the Ministry of Education and academic institutions to provide advanced training and the highest quality tools to Israeli students, helping them realize their personal potential."

Prof. Moshe Lewenstein, Vice President of Bar-Ilan University, said follwing the victory: "It is a great pride to train these wonderful youth who have achieved unprecedented success in the field of informatics. This year, at the University Youth Center, we made a change in the curriculum and created a personalized study program for each member of the delegation, based on their strengths and challenges. Three out of four team members are returning from the main IOI competition with the highest award, placing Israel fourth in the world. Together with the impressive achievements in the CEOI and EGOI competitions, our youth are demonstrating to us and the world that the future of the startup nation is guaranteed, at least at the level of its human capital."