KLOOF’S Faran Steenkamp is the only learner from KwaZulu-Natal who was selected to represent South Africa in a team of four to compete in the 33rd annual International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) held through the University of Singapore in June.
It is the most prestigious computer science competition for secondary school and high school learners in the world and is one of five international science Olympiads held annually.
The Thomas More College matriculant said he was excited to be selected. “I am really excited to, hopefully, travel to Singapore, meet the other contestants and test myself against the problems set.”
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Exceptional high school learners from various countries compete in the prestigious global algorithmic competition to sharpen their informatics skills such as problem analysis, design of algorithms and data structures, programming and testing.
Each country may send a team of four to compete and each contestant competes individually to maximise their score by solving three algorithmic problems within five hours. This year Faran is joined by one competitor from the Western Cape and two from Gauteng.
The group hopes to travel to Singapore – if international Covid travel restrictions allow – but will probably compete online. Their travel and logistics costs have been covered by Standard Bank.
To be eligible, Faran had to be a medallist in the Computer Programming Olympiad of 2020 where he achieved a silver medal. Based on their performance in the national competition, a training squad of seven were invited to attend training squad weekends as well as undertake multiple International Informatics Olympiads and complete the pilot Pan African Olympiad. Faran also had to master the coding system, C++ as the IOI only uses this language for competition.
As well as being skilled in informatics, Faran also has four years’ experience in solving complex robotics challenges – his team won two golds and one silver provincially and came in the top eight in the national champs.
He attended a week-long, invite-only Stellenbosch Maths Camps for four years each December and also completed four years’ training for the Actuarial Society of South Africa Maths Team’s annual competition, both initiatives of the Maths Foundation.
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As a result of his achievements in both the IT Applications and the Programming Olympiad, Faran was awarded Membership of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa.
It’s not all computers and robotics for Faran though as when not at his desk he can be found chilling on a wall. Since 2014 (Grade 6), Faran has represented KwaZulu-Natal in sport climbing. He has his Protea colours in the sport and has represented South Africa in speed climbing at the International Federation for Sport Climbing Youth World Championships in Russia.
He is a graduate of Dale Carnegie Generation Next course and won a prize for the best speech. He is also a keen pianist and is working towards his Grade 8 in classical piano this year.
Faran also loves playing computer games, particularly those that include strategy, puzzle-solving and involve multiple players.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
