BIO'96
The British Informatics Olympiad, sponsored by Data Connection.

Press release - BIO'96
16 April 1996
For immediate publication

Summary

The exciting final of the 1996 British Informatics Olympiad (BIO) took place at Christ's College, Cambridge last weekend. Chosen from over 350 entrants from 70 schools, the 15 talented finalists took part in a hard fought competition for the privilege of representing Britain at the international computing Olympiad. The four winners form a team to travel to Hungary in July.

The British Informatics Olympiad is organised by Antony Rix, Christ's College, Cambridge, and Richard Forster, Trinity College, Oxford, and is sponsored by Data Connection Limited.

Release

Last weekend, 15 of the top pre-university computing students in Britain came to Christ's College, Cambridge for the final of the 1996 British Informatics Olympiad (BIO). They competed for places on the team to represent Britain at the 8th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). The four winners, Michael Anderson, Andrew Cooke, Alex Evans and Justin Santa Barbara, will all receive an expenses-paid trip to the IOI in Hungary at the end of July.

The finalists were selected from the 70 schools and colleges in Scotland, England and Wales who took part in BIO'96. In the first round of the BIO they wrote complicated programs finding amicable numbers, playing the "game of life", and fitting dominoes together. The tasks set for the final were even tougher, with written questions and further computing problems. Despite the difficulty of the programming tests, some of them produced correct solutions in as little as half an hour.

The winners were announced on Sunday 14 April. Clive Partridge, a director of Data Connection, awarded the prizes. He said, "Data Connection is proud to sponsor the BIO'96. As one of the UK's most successful software engineering companies, we base our success on recruiting exceptionally talented people and training them to become world-class software engineers, managers and marketeers. BIO'96 has succeeded in attracting some of the country's brightest and best young computing students. The IOI team is a formidable collection of talent - exactly the sort of people we recruit as both pre-university students and full-time employees."

The BIO has grown considerably since it began last year, despite a significant increase in difficulty. "We have an outstanding team," said Antony Rix, Chairman of the BIO. "I am very hopeful that they will all win medals at the International Olympiad, improving on last year's strong team performance."

Over 55 countries will be competing in Hungary at the week-long IOI, two days of which are spent on computing tests. The participants compete for medals and other prizes. The rest of the Olympiad consists of cultural and social visits and a chance to meet young programmers from all over the world.

Further Information

More details on the BIO can be obtained from:

Antony Rix, Chairman
e-mail: contact details

Justine McLennan
e-mail: http://www.dataconnection.com/

Information, photos and press release archive on the Web:
http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/bio/

Photographs available, taken at the final at Christ's College, Cambridge (these are copyright-free and may be used for publication):

• Team and reserve with Clive Partridge, Data Connection, who presented the prizes:
  Photo 1 - [JPEG]
  Photo 2 - [JPEG]
• Team and reserve with Antony Rix and Richard Forster, BIO Organisers. [JPEG]