VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The closing of the 13th Asia Pacific Informatics Olympiad (APIO) 2020 competition in Jakarta, Friday (21/8). (ANTARA / HO- Public Relations Ministry of Education and Culture)

The Indonesian team managed to pocket six medals -- one gold medal, two silver and three bronze medals -- at the 13th Asia Pacific Informatics Olympiad (APIO) 2020 organized online.

Acting Head of the Ministry of Education and Culture's National Achievement Center, Asep Sukmayadi, congratulated the medal winners.

"Today, we are all proud. A great generation in the field of informatics is here. The responsibility rests on your shoulders to build an Asia-Pacific information society in future and that a just and civilized global information society is laid," Sukmayadi noted in a statement in Jakarta, Saturday.

APIO is organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), through the National Achievement Center (Puspresnas), in collaboration with the Indonesian Computer Olympiad Team Alumni Association (IA-TOKI).

Sukmayadi remarked that competition and champions are not everything since the real champions are all the participants.

“Those with integrity that are able to work together, build networks, play a role, and deliver achievements to bring about changes in a just and civilized society," Sukmayadi noted.

Rama Aryasuta Pangestu, a student of the Kanisius Jakarta High School, expressed pride and contentment over his achievements and expressed readiness to make the Indonesian nation proud at the 2020 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) event in next September.

"Although I did not get a perfect score, I am happy to be in the gold medal category. For the IOI 2020, I will be even more enthusiastic about studying, and hopefully, I can bring back gold," Pangestu noted.

Of the five other medals, Nicholas Patrick, a student of SMA Cita Hati Christian School, Surabaya, East Java, and Pikatan Arya Bramajati, a student of SMA Semesta BBS Semarang, Central Java, were the silver medal winners, while the three bronze medalists were Muhammad Irham Luthfi, a student of the SMA Cahaya Madani Banten Boarding School; Maximilliano Utomo Quok, a student of Xin Zhong School; and Edbert Geraldy Cangdinata a student of SMA Sutomo 1 Medan, North Sumatra.

A total of 852 participants from 33 countries registered themselves to participate in the APIO 2020. Of the 852 participants, 717 participants from 33 countries took part in the APIO 2020 contest.

Based on APIO’s regulations, participants garnering the top six rank in their country and all participants in their country securing the same score as the sixth rank in their nation become the official participants of APIO 2020.

In the end, there were 241 official participants of the APIO 2020, of which 18 got full marks. Through calculations in the APIO regulations, 23 participants, with a score of at least 266 points, secure gold medals; 38 participants, with a score of at least 200 points, receive silver medals; while 59 official participants, with a score of at least 96 points, win bronze medals.

The championship held on August 14-21, 2020, was themed "Informatics for a Better Education and Life". Participants from their respective locations across the nation work on questions online.

"Learning in this period (COVID-19) is not easy, but this is the time for us to innovate. It is time to conduct various experiments, listen to our conscience, and learn from COVID-19, so that we can all become better individuals in future," Sukmayadi stated.(ANTARA)