NOI Pitches in with New National Initiative to Promote Infocomm
 

The National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI), an annual competition organised by NUS School of Computing (SoC) since 1998, has now become part of the National Infocomm Competition (NIC), a new initiative of the Infocomm Authority of Singapore (IDA).

NIC brings together five established infocomm competitions and six new ones, variously organised by the universities and polytechnics in Singapore, as well as ITE College Central, Singapore Computer Society and Singapore Science Centre. It aims to raise awareness and excitement among the students and the public about infocomm. The competition comprises 10 challenges divided into three circuits: secondary schools, junior colleges (JCs) and polytechnics/
institutes of technical education (ITEs). The challenges focus on various areas of infocomm such as security, programming, mobile technology, games development and business IT.

IDA’s Deputy Chief Executive and Director-General (Telecoms) Leong Keng Thai commented: “Singapore needs to develop globally competitive infocomm professionals who are both technologists and business strategists… it is important that we start from schools by attracting and nurturing the best talent into the infocomm workforce.”

As part of NIC, NOI functions within the secondary school and junior college circuits. Modelled after the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), the ultimate international competition in computing. NOI emphasises creativity in problem solving on the one hand, and programming skill and expertise on the other.

SoC’s Assistant Dean (Special Programmes) Aaron Tan remarked that NOI plays an important role: “Without a contest like NOI, secondary school and JC students who are good in programming and problem-solving could be quietly doing good work without due recognition. Their parents would also not know how valuable and important their children’s infocomm potential is.”

NOI consists of a four-hour session in which each contestant is required to individually solve and program a solution to each of the five to seven programming tasks. Top winners at the NOI undergo training by NUS to participate in IOI. This year, IOI 2006 will be held in Meria, Yucaten, Mexico, on 19-26 August 2006.

In January 1997, Mr Lee Yock Suan, then the Minister for Education, announced that any student who wins a medal in the IOI will automatically be offered direct entry into science, computing and engineering courses in Singapore universities.

As part of NIC, NOI will continue to serve its community function of grooming secondary school and junior college the students to take part in the prestigious IOI. The School contributes through the time and effort of its professors in coaching the students, and in the resources it commits in organising the event.

The next NOI takes place on 13 January 2007, and the entry deadline is 11 November 2006.

To find out more about NOI, go to: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~noi/
The official NIC website is at: www.singaporeinfocomm.sg