Malaysia wins gold at International Olympiad in Informatics in Japan

• This is the first gold medal since Malaysia's first participation at the IOI in 2012
• Yeoh Zi Song, one of the four students representing Malaysia, garnered the medal

A TEAM from Malaysia has secured Malaysia's first ever gold medal at the 2018 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Tsukuba, Japan between Sept 1 and 8, 2018.

Known as the "Olympics of high school computer science," the IOI, which receives Unesco patronage, is the most prestigious computer science competition for secondary school students around the world.

This year, Yeoh Zi Song, one of the four students representing Malaysia at the 2018 IOI, garnered a gold medal. This is also the first gold medal since Malaysia's first participation at the IOI in 2012.

Yeoh Zi Song is a Form 5 student at SMJK Chung Ling in Penang. This is the third time he represented Malaysia at the IOI.

The Malaysian team was selected through a series of contests organised by the Malaysian Informatics and Programming Society (MIPS). The first of which for the 2018/19 season, which is the Malaysian Computing Challenge (MCC) will be held on 20-21 Oct 2018.

MCC is supported by the Malaysian government agency Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) as part of #mydigitalmaker movement. For more information visit mcc18.ioimalaysia.org.

"Malaysia's first gold medal at the Informatics Olympiad is an important milestone. We hope more students will be inspired to take part in the MCC, the first step in their journey to the IOI," said Dr. Ong Shien Jin, the founding president of MIPS.

Adding her congratulations to the winners, MDEC’s vice president of Talent & Digital Entrepreneurship, Sumitra Nair commented: “It is wonderful that the International Olympiad in Informatics is discovering great young talents in the computer science arena.  

“The gold medal win by Malaysian students is also another indicator that Malaysia is on the right track with its talent development movement, which includes embedding computational thinking and digital creativity into our schools.”

She further explained that the integration of creativity and computational thinking in schools is part of the #mydigitalmaker Movement which is to develop future digital creators by exposing the Malaysian youth to the innovative aspects of digital technologies.

MDEC organised the #mydigitalmaker Fair 2018 on Sept 29 and 30, 2018 at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.