Singapore teams, coached by CCDS faculty, clinch two gold awards at the inaugural International Olympiad in AI, 2024

NTU, 16 Aug

Two teams of students from Singapore have won gold medals at the first-ever International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), held at the city of Burgas in Bulgaria this year from 9 to 15 August.

The IOAI is a STEM-focused competition aimed at inspiring, developing, and promoting the best students in AI globally. NTU is the national level organising body and country coordinator for IOAI in partnership with AI Singapore.

Participants are tested on their AI know-how in a Scientific Round which emphasises problem-solving skills that are highly sought after in scientific research. This year’s focus is on Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, and Computer Vision using real-world datasets.

Following the Scientific Round, participants then took part in a hands-on Practical Round involving the generation of image and video visualisations using AI tools.

Both Singapore teams took home two out of the four available gold medals in the Scientific Round, beating out over 40 teams from across the world competing in the Olympiad.

The first team comprises students Shah Mahir Hitesh (NUS High School), Kabir Jain (NUS High School), Ng Shi Yu (Temasek Polytechnic), and Wang Zerui (NUS High School).

Members of the second team are Chong Jia Shuo (Nanyang Polytechnic), Lam Eu Ler (NUS High School), Wang Jiayu (NUS High School), and Glenn Wu (Singapore Polytechnic).

Under the guidance of Professor Luke Ong, Vice President (AI & Digital Economy) and Dean,  College of Computing & Data Science (CCDS), NTU, conducted the initial selection test at end April, and led the training programme, final team selection, and consultation sessions over the period from May to early August.

More than 60 students from 11 tertiary institutions went through the selection process before the final eight were selected. The students underwent comprehensive AI training sessions and consultations with CCDS faculty, postgraduate students and research staff over the last three months.

Leading the two student teams are Associate Professor Cheong Kang Hao, who holds a joint appointment at NTU’s CCDS and School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences, and Senior Lecturer Dr Huang Shell Ying from CCDS.

The trainers of the Singapore IOAI teams are Assistant Professors Alvin Chan, Liu Ziwei, Luu Anh Tuan, and Wang Wenya from CCDS. 

– Facilitated by CCO 

Lianhe Zaobao, page 5, 21 Aug   
Lianhe Zaobao online, 21 Aug