In July of this year we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to represent Australia in the Ninth International Olympiad in Linguistics (IOL). After placing first in OzCLO, we travelled to Pittsburgh, USA, where we were to compete as one of 27 teams from 19 countries.

The competition involved a three-hour team contest and an arduous six-hour individual contest. We were required to solve problems on languages such as Menominee, Faroese, Vai, Nahuatl, Sanskrit, and the language of barcodes, EAN-13. All problems from 2011, as well as from past years, can be viewed at http://www.ioling.org/problems/2011/.

When we weren’t solving complex linguistic problems, we were able to explore the city of Pittsburgh; we went around town absorbing American culture and even heard one of Pittsburgh’s own linguistic quirks, “yinz”, which acts as a plural of “you”. We were able to visit such places as the Andy Warhol Museum and the Cathedral of Learning (part of the University of Pittsburgh), as well as visiting diners and drug stores and everything in between.

At the closing ceremony, solutions were given to all of the problems, and the results of both contests were announced. Gold for the team contest went to the USA’s team Red, silver to Russia’s St. Petersburg team, and bronze to Russia’s Moscow team. The awards for the individual contest consisted of four gold, eight silver, and thirteen bronze medals, as well as twenty-five honourable mentions. We were ecstatic when one of our own, Paul Lau, was awarded a silver medal, Australia’s first ever medal at the IOL! The four gold medals were awarded to individuals from USA (Red), Estonia, Russia (Moscow), and Russia (St. Petersburg).

Overall, we had great time in Pittsburgh; we made lots of friends from all over the world and, despite the challenging problems, we thoroughly enjoyed representing Australia at the IOL. We strongly encourage any interested students to enter OzCLO.

There are several people who have provided us with the opportunity to compete in this year’s IOL. We would like to thank:

• Jill Vaughan, our wonderful team coach;
• Dominique Estival and the OzCLO steering committee, as well as all of OzCLO’s sponsors;
• Rachel Nordlinger, chair of the Victorian arm of OzCLO;
• The IOL and Carnegie Mellon University;
• The University High School community, for providing us with support for our trip;
• Celia King and Jenny Tarr, the teachers who introduced us to OzCLO; and
• Nell Day, for organizing our school’s 2011 participation in OzCLO.

Report by: Joanna Bloore, Paul Lau, Ben van Mierlo, Anna Zeng, from the University High School, Melbourne.

The 9th International Linguistics Olympiad took place in Pittsburgh, USA from 25th – 29th July and was hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. The winning team from the National Round of OzCLO (Joanna Bloore, Paul Lau, Benjamin van Mierlo and Anna Zeng from the University High School, Melbourne) competed against 27 teams from 19 countries in an individual and a group contest. Contestants' logical ability and problem-solving skills were pushed to the limits to tackle data sets from diverse languages and writing systems including Menominee, Faroese, Vai, Nahuatl and Sanskrit, as well as a fiendish problem on the barcode language EAN-13.

The jury awarded 25 medals (4 gold, 8 silver, and 13 bronze), as well as 25 honourable mentions, 3 team contest trophies, a team cup for highest average score, and 5 best solution prizes. We're very proud to announce that Australia's Paul Lau was awarded a silver medal in the individual contest – the highest achievement so far of an Australian student at the IOL! The team also performed very well as a whole against some formidable competition in the group contest.

The primary purpose of the event is to raise public awareness of linguistics. "Linguistics is not a school subject, and students often don't even know the word," says Ivan Derzhanski, co-chair of the International Board and associate professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. "Our contest is one of the ways of telling them what a fascinating science it is."

In Australia, OzCLO is now held in 7 locations, with almost 800 students having competed in the First Round in March 2011. This is made possible by the dedication of the local volunteer organisers, with the support of the universities where it is held. The Australian Linguistic Society provided funding for the training of the winning team in preparation to the ILO and generous sponsors helped cover the team's travel expenses.

After Wroclaw in 2009, Stockholm in 2010 and Pittsburgh in 2011, we look forward to sending another Australian team to next year's IOL, to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

For more information on the IOL, see http://www.ioling.org/

Report by
Jill Vaughan, Australian Team Leader
Dominique Estival, Chair of the OzCLO Steering Committee

OzCLO 2011 National winners from University High School, Victoria

We are very pleased to announce Anna Zeng, Paul Lau Benjamin van Mierlo and Joanna Bloore (pictured below) from University High School as the national winning team (gold) of OzCLO 2011. Second place (silver) went to a team from Scotch College, Victoria (also pictured) followed by third place (bronze) getters Canberra Grammar School, ACT. Top Junior prize went to a team from North Sydney Girls from the NSW South competition (also pictured). Details can be viewed in '2011 National Results' in the '2011 Competition' sidebar where you can also access First Round results for each region.

Above: OzCLO 2011 National Round winners from University High School. L-R: Anna Zeng, Paul Lau Benjamin van Mierlo and Joanna Bloore

Above: OzCLO 2011 National round 2nd place team from Scotch College Victoria. Dinesh Giritharan, Victor Yang, Ronald Zhang, Jason Ha.

Above: Top Junior team from North Sydney Girls who also won first place (gold) in the NSW South competition. Back row L-R: Amy Chang, Vicki Banks (teacher), Lisa Wang. Front row L-R: Tracy Poon, Shelly Ni.

Congratulations to all four winning teams and thank you to all the schools who participated in OzCLO 2011! We hope you enjoyed the challenge and the experience. The First Round and National Round problems have now been added to 'Problems' in the OzCLO sidebar.

Dr Dominique Estival, Associate Professor Jane Simpson, teachers and participating students were interviewed for the ABC radio program PM during the NSW First Round of OzCLO on Wednesday 24th February, 2010. Listen to the segment here.

As they become available, results from the first round competitions are being posted here.