This past summer, two of our talented coding club students, Matthijs Schrijvers (DP1) and Stefano Larsen (DP2), went to the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence. Their journey to this event was both educational and inspiring. Here's what they had to share about their experiences:
Matthijs Schrijvers:
"I really enjoyed the experience of immersing myself in the competitive programming culture and making new friends. I learned about machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing, which allowed me to win a bronze award. Going to Bulgaria for this was the highlight of my summer!"
Stefano Larsen:
"It is difficult to know where to begin, given how many amazing things happened in Bulgaria. Above all though, it was incredible to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories about how they got there. We got particularly close with the Isle of Man team, amazing people we are still in contact with to this day.
There is more to AI than what is portrayed in the media. We had to make and train these networks ourselves, so it was not a matter of just using ChatGPT to do the work for us—it most certainly wouldn't do a good job! We got to learn how these networks were made, as well as how they can be used, and it was wonderful to do this in a friendly and competitive context. Winning the bronze medal too was just the cherry on top."
We’re proud of Matthijs and Stefano for their dedication to learning and for representing ISH on a global stage!