IOI History
The idea of initiating international olympiads in informatics for school
students was proposed to the 24th General Conference of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in Paris by the Bulgarian delegate Professor Sendov in October 1987.
This plan was included into the Fifth Main Program of UNESCO for
the biennium 1988-1989 (Section 05 215).
In May 1989, UNESCO initiated and sponsored the first
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
[Quoted from the IOI'89 and
IOI'92 Report.]
The IOI is one of five
international science olympiads.
The primary goal of the IOI is to stimulate interest
in informatics (computing science) and information technology.
Another important goal is to bring together exceptionally talented pupils
from various countries and to have them share scientific and cultural
experiences.
The IOI is organized annually in and by one of the participating countries.
Each participating country typically sends a delegation of four pupils and
two accompanying adults.
The pupils compete individually and try to maximize their score
by solving a set of informatics problems during two competition days.
The problems have been algorithmic programming problems
to be solved on a personal computer.
Cultural and recreational events are organized on the remaining days.
- 1989 - Pravetz, Bulgaria,
May 16-19, 1989
- 1990 - Minsk, Belarussian Republic,
Soviet Union,
15-21 July 1990
- 1991 - Athens, Greece,
19-25 May 1991
- 1992 - Bonn, Germany,
11-21 July 1992
- 1993 - Mendoza, Argentina,
16-25 October 1993
- 1994 - Haninge, Sweden,
3-10 July 1994
- 1995 - Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
26 June - 3 July 1995
- 1996 - Veszprém, Hungary,
25 July - 2 August 1996
- 1997 - Cape Town, South Africa,
30 November - 7 December 1997
- 1998 - Setúbal, Portugal,
5-12 September 1998
- 1999 - Antalya-Belek, Turkey,
9-16 October 1999
- 2000 - Beijing, China,
23-30 September 2000
- 2001 - Tampere, Finland,
14-21 July 2001
- 2002 - Yong-In, Korean Republic,
18-25 August 2002
- 2003 - Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA,
16-23 August 2003
- 2004 - Athens, Greece,
11-18 September 2004
- 2005 - Nowy Sacz, Poland,
18-25 August 2005
- 2006 - Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico,
13-20 August 2006
- 2007 - Zagreb, Croatia,
15-22 August 2007
Future IOIs are in the making.
On-line database with results for past IOIs
IOI Secretariat /
ioi-secretariat@win.tue.nl
Internet service provided by