Singapore Students Win 11 Gold Medals, 14 Silver Medals, 3 Bronze Medals and 1 Team Championship in this Year's International Olympiads and International Young Physicists' Tournament

The Ministry of Education (MOE) congratulates all students for their excellent performance in the International Olympiads for Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Mathematics, Nuclear Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Informatics, and the International Young Physicists' Tournament¹, which were held overseas from July to September 2024. Beyond the competitions, our students also benefitted from the opportunity to interact with like-minded peers from all around the world.

35th International Biology Olympiad (IBO)²

2. The Singapore team clinched two Gold medals and two Silver medals at the 35th IBO held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 7 to 14 July 2024. The team emerged 5th out of a total of 74 countries/territories and 286 participants. The IBO pits students in their Biology skills and knowledge against their peers in both practical and theory components. In the practical component, students were challenged with four tasks from the topics of molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, animal anatomy and physiology. In the theory component, students were challenged with questions across a myriad of topics, including biosystematics, cell and molecular biology, ecology, ethology, genetics and evolution, plant anatomy and physiology, and animal anatomy and physiology.

56th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO)³

3. The Singapore team clinched one Gold medal and three Silver medals at the 56th IChO held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 21 to 30 July 2024. The team came in joint 9th out of a total of 84 countries/territories and 327 participants. Students underwent a diverse range of Chemistry tasks comprising experimental and theoretical components. In the experimental component, students had to use a variety of experimental techniques to determine the identity of unknown ions in aqueous solutions. In the theoretical component, students were given the opportunity to explore a range of tasks related to synthetic and physical chemistry.

20th International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) 2024⁴

4. The Singapore team won one Gold medal, two Silver medals and one Bronze medal at the 20th iGeo held in Dublin, Ireland from 19 to 25 August 2024. The team emerged 9th out of a total of 46 countries/territories and 178 participants. During the competition, students demonstrated their knowledge and skills in the Written Response Test which focused on knowledge about geographically and socially relevant issues. The Fieldwork Test required students to apply keen observation, mapping, and problem-solving skills. Team members were also engaged in a Multi-media Test which required them to apply geographical thinking skills in their analysis. Outside the competition, students enjoyed and benefitted from cultural exchanges with teams from the other countries.

65th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2024⁵

5. The Singapore team won one Gold and five Silver medals at the 65th IMO held in Bath, United Kingdom, from 11 to 22 July 2024. The team came in joint 6th out of a total of 108 countries/territories. A total of 609 participants took part in the IMO, where they were challenged to solve six rigorous problems on topics such as number theory and geometry.

1st International Nuclear Science Olympiad (INSO) 2024⁶

6. The Singapore team won four Gold medals and received a special award for achieving the highest points in the Experimental Examination at the 1st INSO in New Clark City, Philippines, from 1 to 6 August 2024. The inaugural event saw participation from 55 students representing 14 countries, who tackled two problems in the experimental examination and five problems in the theoretical examination. The competition focused on the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology, including topics such as generating clean energy through fusion reactions and nuclear reactors, the sterile insect technique, and using particles to combat cancer.

1st International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI)⁷

7. The Singapore team won two Gold medals at the 1st IOAI held in Burgas, Bulgaria from 9 to 15 August 2024. Team 1 came in 4th while Team 2 came in 3rd out of a total of 41 teams from 30 countries/territories. The IOAI's Scientific Round required teams to solve problems that mimicked real-world scientific research on topics pertaining to machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.

36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) 2024⁸

8. The Singapore team won two Silver medals and two Bronze medals at the 36th IOI held in Alexandria, Egypt from 1 to 8 September 2024. The team came in 25th out of a total of 91 countries/territories and 362 participants. The IOI required students to design and implement efficient algorithms and data structures to overcome challenging computational problems.

37th International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) 2024⁹

9. Singapore sent a team for the 37th International Young Physicists' Tournament hosted at Budapest, Hungary, from 10 to 17 July 2024. The team came in 1st in the preliminary fights and clinched the overall Champion at the final round out of 38 countries. During the competition, participants solved complicated real-world Physics problems, as well as shared their ideas through rigorous scientific research and discussions.

Footnotes

1. Our students' participation in these international competitions is a joint effort between MOE and the following organisations: Singapore Mathematical Society; Singapore Institute of Biology; Institute of Physics, Singapore; DSO National Laboratories; Singapore National Institute of Chemistry; Geography Teachers' Association of Singapore; National University of Singapore; Nanyang Technological University; National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and AI Singapore.

2. Please refer to https://ibo2024.kz for more information on 35th IBO.

3. Please refer to https://www.icho2024.sa for more information about the 56th IChO.

4. Please refer to IGU - iGeo 2024 (http://www.geoolympiad.org/) for more information about the 20th iGeo.

5. Please refer to https://www.imo2024.uk for more information about the 65th IMO.

6. Please refer to https://insofirst.ph for more information about the 1st INSO 2024.

7. Please refer to https://ioai-official.org/2024-bulgaria for more information about the 1st IOAI 2024.

8. Please refer to 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (https://www.ioi2024.eg) for more information about the 36th IOI.

9. Please refer to https://www.iypt.org for more information about the IYPT.