International Olympiad in Informatics Training Camp

The International Olympiad in Informatics Training Camp (IOITC for short) is a one fortnight long annual training camp held in India to select and train students to represent India at the International Olympiad in Informatics. IOITC is the third and last stage of the Indian Computing Olympiad.

About the Indian Computing Olympiad

The Indian Computing Olympiad (ICO) is a nationwide competition organized annually by the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science in coordination with CBSE. The goal of the competition is to identify school students with outstanding skills in algorithms and computer programming.

ICO is used to select the team of four students to represent India at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). IOI is one of the six Science Olympiads held annually. The other five Science Olympiads are held in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy.

election

Eligibility

Since the IOITC's primary goal is to select students for the IOI, the same eligibility criteria used for the IOI are also used for the IOITC. Namely the student must have not yet formally joined college. Thus, the last time a person can attend the IOITC as a student is just after finishing his or her twelfth standard.

First time selection

Selection to the IOITC is through the Indian Computing Olympiad (ICO for short).The procedure is as follows:

* Zonal Informatics Olympiad (ZIO) - The first round, ZIO is a written test accessible to students from all schools and does not require any actual computer programming.
* Indian National Olympiad in Informatics (INOI) - The second round, the INOI is held at centres across the country. INOI involves programming in any one of the three languages C, C++, and Pascal, as in IOI.

election for further years

Students who have been selected for IOITC'n and eligible for IOI'n+1 don't need to write ZIO'n+1. They can directly write INOI'n+1. Separate classes are held at IOITC'n+1 for such students.

General details of the camp

Location

Since 2003, the camp is being held at The International School Bangalore (TISB), Bangalore. Participants are provided accommodation in the TISB hostels.

Timing

The camp is generally held in the second fornight of June. In this period TISB has vacations and other Olympiad camps are over by then.

Travelling

Travelling expenditure between the city of residence and Bangalore for the selected students is reimbursed by the IARCS. The expected mode of travel is Sleeper Class by train (as of 2006). Transport is arranged for students from Bangalore Airport and Bangalore Railway Station to TISB according to arrival timings given by the contestants for out stationed participants. For local residents, a common place and time is fixed for picking up the students. Similar arrangement is made for departure at the end of the camp.

At the camp

Overall schedule

The duration of the camp is about 2 weeks. The schedule is roughly as follows:
* Day 0: Arrivals
* Day 1 to Day 5-6: Week 1 of classes, daily tests and assignments.
* Day 6-7: Excursion(s) to places in and around city
* Day 8 to Day 12-13: Week 2 of classes, daily tests and assignments.
* Day 13-14: Final Test(s)
* Day 15: Closing Ceremony: The team is formally announced at the closing ceremony, though it is known earlier, typically by the previous night. Since 2004, the function is being held at Sasken, Bangalore, the sponsors of the camp.

Daily schedule

The daily schedule on training days is roughly as follows:

* Breakfast
* Two classes of about 90 minutes each for the first-timers; and a test and separate classes/discussion for those who have attended the camp earlier
* Lunch
* Assignment session
* Free time, typically used for sports, internet, chatting, etc
* Dinner
* Evaluation test

The schedule is not very rigid; for example, the assignment session and evaluation test can be interchanged. The assignments and tests follow the IOI pattern of questions. The results of the tests are usually declared within one or two days.

election of the team

The exact number of tests and weightage varies from year to year. It was as follows in 2006:

* There were 11 "daily" tests [Total : 100 marks] : Each test - Duration 2 hours, 1 problem, 10 marks. Best 10 scores out of 11 were taken.
* Towards the end of camp, there were a couple of "Final tests" [Total : 50 marks] : Each test - Duration 4 hours, 2 problems, 25 marks.

At the end of the camp, the four students with the highest total scores are chosen to represent India at the IOI. The two students with the next highest scores are chosen as "reserves".

Prizes, scholarships and other benefits

* At each training camp, students generally receive a T shirt, a bag, a certificate of participation and a memento from the organisers.
* Students representing India who win a medal at any International Science Olympiad receive a cash prize of Rs 10,000 from Infosys foundation. [http://www.infosys.com/investor/reports/annual/Infosys_AR06.pdf] The award ceremony for this is held at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
* Picopeta has offered to award a Simputer to any student winning a gold medal at the IOI.
* In 2006, Sasken, the sponsor of the camp, gave a cash prize of Rs. 12,000 to each of the team members.
* Starting from 2006, students selected in the team automatically qualify for the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana fellowship in the science stream, provided they continue their education in science. [http://www.iisc.ernet.in/kvpy/eligibility-sciences.html]
* Students who participate in the camp may be given direct admission to Chennai Mathematical Institute's B.Sc. (Hons) Mathematics programme. This is decided on a case-by-case basis by the admissions committee.

ponsors

Since 2003, the fortnight long camp is being sponsored by Sasken Communication Technologies.The international travel of the Indian delegation were sponsored by NASSCOM in 2003 and 2004, and by Sasken Communication Technologies since 2005. [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/2007/#sponsors] [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/2006/#sponsors] [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/2005/#sponsors] [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/2004/#sponsors] [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/2003/#sponsors]

External links

* [http://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/ Indian Computing Olympiad homepage]