Israeli high-school students returned home triumphantly on Wednesday after winning gold, silver and bronze medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics in Tsukuba, Japan, earlier this week.
Nir Shalmon, a 12th-grade student from Ben-Zvi High School in Kiryat Ono, took home a gold medal and finished 14th in the world. The two-day competition in computer programming and problem-solving is structured so that about half the contestants win medals, with about 1 in 12 winning gold.
"I really enjoyed the competition and was very surprised to receive a gold medal," Shalmon said.
"I trained for the competition for three years and expected to get a silver medal. The competition was divided into two days. On the first day, the results were very close, so I was very anxious going in to the second day."
Roee Sinai, an 11th-grader from Lod, won a silver medal. In July, he took home silver from the International Mathematical Olympiad in Romania.
Also in July, members of the National Physics team won two gold and three silver medals at the 49th International Physics Olympiad in Lisbon, Portugal.
Meanwhile, the National Chemistry team took home a silver and a bronze medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
This year's International Olympiad in Informatics involved 331 students from 87 countries.
"We received wonderful tidings for the [Jewish] new year. The achievements of the Israeli team are another example of the leap made by Israeli education in the fields of computer science, cyber and high-tech," Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.
"We are putting a primary emphasis on making the technological field accessible and on cultivating young talents who will lead our future generation in the field of computers and high-tech."
The Education Ministry works with the Future Scientists Center to prepare students for the contests, and the Israeli computer science team trained at Tel Aviv University.
Future Scientists Center Chairman Dr. Shimshon Shoshani welcomed the results at the Japan contest as a wonderful way to begin the new Jewish year.
"This is a holiday for Israel and the Israeli computer science team, which represented Israel abroad with great honor. We are immensely proud of our students," he said.
