Campion College student earns silver medal at IOAI in China

AT THE recent International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), held in Beijing, China, from August 2-9, 16-year-old Matthew Williams, now a fifth-form student at Campion College, copped a silver medal on his 16th birthday, while 17-year-old Cruze Caine of Hillel Academy received an honourable mention. Caine is a past student of Campion.

Other members of the Jamaican delegation included 19-year-old Jamia Williamson and 18-year-old Makini Thompson, both formerly of Campion College. They were part of more than 300 competitors from more than 80 countries and territories. Williams has three more high school years to participate in the AI Olympiad.

In reacting to his accomplishment, he told The Gleaner, “Achieving the silver medal brought me overwhelming joy. All the work myself and the team put into training and preparation paid off, and I was proud, not just because I’ve done it, but because Jamaica has done it. I was able to put Jamaica on the map in STEM and AI and prove to the world that we small, but we tallawah.

“Without the support and encouragement from my teammates, I would not have flown nearly as high as I have. They were present for every step of the way, and I was able to confide in them, bounce ideas off of them, gather strength from them, and train with them until late in the night at the venue. They were absolutely essential in the achievement, and each of them is just as proud.”

For achieving his honourable mention, Cruz said, “I would say the three main things I’ve contributed to this accomplishment are faith in God’s discipline and the support that I got from my parents, teammates and coach. I was happy, as I felt that my hard work had paid off. I also felt proud of myself for representing Jamaica on the national team, especially with this being the first year of our team. Being part of a team and seeing the efforts of my teammates motivated me to do better and work harder, and it also was helpful having teammates who, when I fell down, they could help me and vice versa.”

It was the first time a team from Jamaica participated in this prestigious competition, where students worked on real-world artificial intelligence challenges in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, and machine learning.

The competition consisted of two rounds – a scientific round and a practical one. The scientific round included at-home and on-site problems, the testing of deep knowledge of AI concepts. The practical round took place during the Olympiad and required students to solve creative problems using AI tools.

The team leader was Nasha Frith, national coach and lead instructor at Halls of Learning, which she attended since she was in high school. She is set to graduate from The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, later this year.

About Caine, she said, “I am really proud of Cruz for achieving an honourable mention at the IOAI. I would say that three things contributed to his accomplishment. First, his innate talents; second, his genuine interest, and I think that interest pushed him to work a little bit harder or learn a little bit more. And then that relates to my third thing, which is just his ability to crack down and work hard when it matters … being a part of the team simply affected his individual efforts.”

She said this about Williams: “I’m really happy that Matthew achieved a silver medal at the IOAI. I’m really, really proud of him. Three things that contributed to that accomplishment I’d say, first, he’s incredibly intelligent ... he has a gift for this sort of thing. Another thing that contributed to his accomplishment, in my opinion, was his time management. Finally, I would say that his focus contributed to the accomplishment.”

Halls of Learning, which was the organiser of the National Olympiad of AI, was the host of the national training camp to select the team, and the sponsor of the delegation’s participation in the Olympiad. In alignment with Jamaica’s National AI Policy and Vision 2030, Halls of Learning, in collaboration with EduSpace Brazil, successfully launched the inaugural National Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence and prepared the students for the Olympiad.

“My overall feeling is a flood of pride for these kids (teenagers). For the validation of the idea that they could shine among the best AI minds in the world; for all their hard work, and then the larger belief in self that accomplishments injected in all of them; and for our ability to find our own way to sponsor the team after our external solicitations received no support,” Marvin G. Hall, founder of Halls of Learning, told The Gleaner.

“It also marks the beginning of a journey that allows our students to excel in another field of endeavour on the world stage. And, ultimately, it validates Nasha as an excellent coach, and that is something that every team and/or individual becomes successful with.”