"Before the contest, we had a brief look around Tokyo and spent a day at Disney Sea. IBM arranged some cultural activities for us, learning about Anime and Origami. For me, the highlight of the contest was debugging a problem using paper and calculator so as not to stop the other two working on their problem. At the celebration afterwards, I enjoyed watching the organisers get robbed by a Scandinavian professional theatrical pickpocket."

Andrew Olsen

Robert Bowmaker

"It was great to experience a different culture while staying in one of the nicest hotels in the area. The hosts of the competition organised great events to pass the time, and the food was excellent. My highlight, apart from the contest itself, would be playing with Duplo with Andrew and the local kids."

"The trip this year was an awesome experience, with the best part being, of course, the 5 hour contest. Our team managed to combine our separate skills to near perfection. After one early solved problem, and three in the middle of the contest, we had each been involved in at least 2 of the solved problems. It was then very exciting as we alternated using the computer every 2 minutes to solve 2 more problems in the last 15 minutes to get us to the bronze medal position. We came out of the contest happy that we had finished everything we had tried, and a bronze medal was a great way to cap it off."

Stephen Merriman

Coach Michael Dinneen

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"I am very proud of these students. They worked very hard over two years of intense training to get the high ranking achieved this year."