The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology (ICT), Mohamed Salem, recently honoured the winners of the International Olympiad in Informatics (software and information technology) IOI 2011 that was hosted in Pattaya, Thailand. The Egyptian team formed of four members: Omar Ahmed El-Azzazy, Ahmed Salem Ezzat, Emad Farag William and Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Kamel won two silver and one bronze medals. About 81 countries and 324 participants all over the world participated in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) this year. The Egyptian team participating in IOI 2011 won the first four positions in the Egyptian Olympiad in Informatics in 2010. The Minister of ICT, Mohamed Salem, announced that winning such number of medals for the first time reflects the Egyptian youth capacities regarding methodological thinking, innovation and development. He, also, pointed out that the Egyptian youth played a key role in the January 25 revolution, which brought change and democracy to Egypt through the use of Information Technology. Moreover, those medals reflect the fruitful outcome of the Ministry's strategy encouraging the use of information technology among youth through specialised contests in computer branches. Salem stressed on the Ministry's determination to move forward in encouraging and discovering distinguished young talents in IT to represent Egypt in the international arena, as well as to prepare Egyptian human calibers to match labour market needs in the IT field. The International Olympiad in Informatics is an annual worldwide competition in programming. This contest is hosted by an advanced country selected by the Competition International Committee. Participants at this contest should be in the age group between 6 ��" 20 years old. Through the various stages of the competition, the participants solve series of problems. Solving these problems depends on using methodological thinking and fundamental principles of computer algorithms. This two elements help participants find best solutions and prepare computer programmes, thus to solve technical problems. The MCIT established the Egyptian Informatics Olympiad (EIO) in 2003 where the competitions take place annually between the Egyptian contestants nationwide. The first four winners in each year represent Egypt in the International Olympiad in Informatics. The first Egyptian Informatics Olympiad (EIO) in 2003 had the greatest impact on the Egyptian participation in the International Olympiad in Informatics. As a result, Egypt won its first bronze medal in 2005 in Poland and another bronze medal in 2006 in Mexico. In 2008, Egypt hosted the International Olympiad in Informatics and won a bronze medal. Moreover, 2009 was a remarkable year as the Egyptian team won three bronzes in Bulgaria, and finally, the last year, 2010, Egypt also won one silver and one bronze medal in Waterloo, Canada.
