Mexican Informatics Olympiad

The Mexican Computer Science Olympiad (OMI) is a national competition for young people at the middle and high school level with the ability to solve practical problems through logic and the use of computers, which seeks promote technological development in Mexico and find the best programmers, who will form the Mexican team to participate in the next International Informatics Olympiads (IOI).

The IMO is a contest in which, above all, it is required to have ease, skill and willingness to solve problems, using logic, ingenuity and computers.

IMO Objectives

The main objectives of the IMO are:

• Promote among the country ' s upper middle-level students, interest in computer science and computer sciences.
• Promote technological development in Mexico.
• Find talented young people within these areas to support them in their studies and guide their concerns.
• Find the best selection to represent Mexico at the International Computer Olympics (IOIs) that take place year after year in one of the participating countries.
• Promote friendship, coexistence and technological exchange among young people across the country with common interests in programming.

Requirements to compete

All young people who meet the following requirements can participate:

• Being enrolled in some middle school, schooled or non-schooled (secondary and preparatory)
• Being Mexican
• To be less than 20 years at the date of the international contest (summer of the next year of which the IMO begins, the exact date will be detailed in the call of each year)
• Be the most registered in 2nd year of preparatory or equivalent

The minimum knowledge and skills that they must have are the following:

• Basic Mathematics: Arithmetic, Algebra and Trigonometry
• Pleasure to solve problems and challenges.

The IMO is developed in the stages and approximate dates listed below:

1. Registration (December, January and February)
2. National Open Internet Review (March)
3. State written review (April)
4. State practice (Mayo)
5. Training of State Selections (May - August)
6. National Practical Review (September)
7. Internet training and examinations for the National Preselection (June - March next year)
8. Training and eye exams for the National Preselection (March)
9. Training of the National Selection before IOI (June - July)
10. Participation in the International Competition - IOI (July - September)

In each of these stages, different topics and skills are evaluated and progress progressively. In all of them, only the best are selected to move on to the next one.

The registration process will be open to all those young people who meet the requirements described in each call.

IMO Origin

The IMO has its origin in a series of competitions called Science Olympiads organized by the UN through UNESCO, whose objective is to promote the development of the different disciplines of science around the world and establish the levels of competition that It is held in some topic, science or technique, within a group of inhabitants of a community or country, at the same time as discovering at an early age talented young people in these disciplines. The above serves to take the necessary measures to raise this level for the benefit of said society and encourage young people who stand out in this area to better positions. The Mexican Informatics Olympiads have been held in Mexico since 1996, uninterruptedly, and Mexico has participated since 1992 in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) every year.

Competition structure

Every year, the delegations from each of the 32 states meet in a previously chosen state of the Mexican Republic.

The delegation of a state is made up of: 1 leader, 1 delegate (which can be the same figure as the leader), 1 to 4 competitors (the host state can take 8), advisory professors, observers and guests. In order for a competitor to be part of a delegation, he must live or study in the state he represents; In the event that a competitor lives in a border city (such as the metropolitan area of Mexico City) and lives and studies in a different state, he has the right to compete in the federative entity that best suits him.

The competition usually lasts five days, two for exams, one for the opening, one for closing and one for cultural events. During the exam days, competitors must solve an exam with three or four problems in a period of five hours, each with their own computer, without any type of external help, communication between them or access to the Internet or external devices. On the first day they must solve problems using Karel the Robot, while on the second day of the exam they must solve problems using the high-level languages C, C++ or Pascal. Programs made by competitors are then tested against a group of strategically designed test cases to find flaws in the codes.

At the end of the competition, gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to the best competitors, and those who have obtained a gold or silver medal, as well as those who have obtained a bronze and who can compete in the following year At the IMO, they are chosen to belong to the Mexican preselection, from which, after a year of training, the Mexican delegation that represents us each year at the IOI will be obtained.

Prizes

During the IMO, the scores obtained by the competitors are ordered from highest to lowest to award gold medals to the highest twelfth, silver medals to the next two twelfths, and bronze medals to the next three twelfths. In this way, medals are awarded to half of the competitors.

In addition, there are various prizes each year, which vary from PCs, Laptops and scientific calculators to books and computer software, which are awarded depending on the scores obtained and the budget of the organizing state and sponsors. Those students selected to represent Mexico in the International Olympiad travel to the host country that year, with all expenses paid.

In 2006, Grupo Salinas announced that it would support competitors who managed to obtain medals in the IOI with cash in the following way: 100,000 MXN for each bronze medal; 200,000 MXN for each silver medal; and 300,000 MXN for each gold medal. To date, through these awards, Grupo Salinas has awarded a total of 1,300,000 MXN to the eight competitors who have obtained medals in the IOI since 2006.

The COMI

The COMI (Mexican Computer Committee A.C.) is the institution in charge of promoting, organizing, raising funds and carrying out the OMI.

The COMI is made up of the members of the Scientific and Academic Commission, the members of the Host State Organizing Committee and the Leaders of the State Committees.

The COMI receives support from Institutions interested in the educational and technological development of Mexico such as:

• Ministry of Public Education (SEP)
• National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT)
• Government of the host State of each year.

Multiple IMO Winners

The following table shows the best IMO participants since 2003 who have won at least two gold medals.

The signs "(I)", "(II)", " (III)", indicate first, second and third absolute place respectively.

The year "2004.5" It was the OMII (Mexican Intermediate Computing Olympiad) which was a simultaneous process with the 2004 OMI.

IMO Headquarters

The two years prior to the first Mexican Informatics Olympiad, two competitions were held with little participation from the states of the Republic to obtain the four competitors who represented Mexico in the 6th and 7th IOI respectively:

• Alan Turing Programming Contest 1994 In March 1994, the IPN High School of Physics and Mathematics organized the Alan Turing Programming Contest 1994 to select the delegation that represented Mexico in the Sixth International Computer Olympics.
• 1995 Computer Contest In May 1995, ITESM Campus Eugenio Garza Sada organized the Computer Contest to select the delegation that represented Mexico at the Seventh International Computer Olympics.

Starting in 1996, the Mexican Informatics Olympiad emerged as an event and had the state of Nuevo León as its first venue.

• 1st Mexican Olympics 1996 Monterrey, Nuevo León from 3 to 6 May at ITESM facilities, Eugenio Garza Sada campus. They participated 11 states with a total of 56 students.

• 2nd Mexican Computer Olympiad 1997 Mexico, D.F. from 30 June to 3 July at ITAM facilities. They participated 15 states with a total of 69 students.

• 3rd Mexican Olympics in Informatics 1998 Guadalajara, Jalisco from 24 to 28 April at the U de G facilities. 16 states with 65 students participated.

• 4th Mexican Olympics 1999 Atizapán de Zaragoza, State of Mexico from 10 to 13 May 1999, at the facilities of the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus State of Mexico (ITESM CEM). Forty-six students from 12 state delegations participated, each state had a maximum of 5 students.

• 5th Mexican Olympics in Informatics 2000 Torreón, Coahulia from 23 to 28 May 2000, at the facilities of the Ibero-American University. They participated 13 states with a total of 58 students.

• 6th Mexican Computer Olympiad 2001 Culiacán, Sinaloa from 6 to 10 May 2001, at the facilities of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. They participated 10 states with a total of 46 students.

• 7th Mexican Olympics for Computers 2002 Jalapa, Veracruz from 13 to 17 May at the facilities of the Autonomous University of Jalapa and the National Advanced Computer Laboratory. They participated 22 states with a total of 108 students.

• 8th Mexican Olympics in Computers 2003 Pachuca, Hidalgo from June 27 to July 1 at the ITESM campus Hidalgo facilities. The 32 states of the Republic participated for the first time with 132 competitors.

• 9th Mexican Computer Olympics 2004 Morelia, Michoacán 9-13 July. Organized by the Technological Institute of Morelia, with the presence of 28 states and 108 participants.

• 9th Mexican Olympics 2004 Second Edition In 2004, two simultaneous selection processes were carried out in order to enable the Mexican delegation for a whole year to be better prepared for international competitions. The second edition of the 9th OMI was held in Blackfoot, Coahuila, and it was a much smaller and austere event than the other competitions.

• 10th Mexican Olympics 2005 Durango, Durango from 20 to 24 May 2005. Organized by the Technological Institute of Durango, with the presence of 25 states and 96 participants.

• 11th Mexican Olympics in Informatics 2006 San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí from 2 to 7 May 2006, with the presence of 27 states and 108 participants.

• 12th Mexican Olympics 2007 Torreón, Coahuila from 24 to 29 May 2007, at the facilities of the Luis Aguirre Benavides School, with the presence of 29 states and 112 participants.

• 13th Mexican Olympics 2008 Puebla, Puebla from 26 June to 1 July 2008, at the facilities of the Faculty of Computer Sciences of the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP), with the presence of 25 states and 101 participants.

• 14th Mexican Olympics 2009 Colima, Colima from 1 to 6 October 2009, at the facilities of the University of Colima, with the presence of 28 states and 108 participants.

• 15th Mexican Olympics 2010 Mérida, Yucatan from 6 to 11 September 2010, at the facilities of the Marista University of Mérida, with the presence of 28 states and 106 participants.

• 16th Mexican Olympiad of Computers 2011 Cuernavaca, Morelos from 2 to 6 September 2011, at the facilities of the Emiliano Zapata Technological University, with the presence of 27 states and 108 participants.

• 17th Mexican Olympics 2012 Beautiful, Sonora. from 23 to 27 September 2012, at the facilities of the University of Sonora, with the presence of 105 participants from 27 different states.

• 18th Mexican Olympics 2013 Toluca, State of Mexico. from 18 to 23 April 2013, at the installations of Preparatory 2 of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, with 99 participants from 25 states.

• 19th Mexican Olympics 2014 Pachuca, Hidalgo. from 1 to 6 May 2014, at the facilities of the Metropolitan Polytechnic University of Hidalgo, with the presence of 109 participants from 27 states.

• 20th Mexican Olympics for Computers 2015 Chihua, Chih. from 30 April to 4 May 2015, at the Faculty of Accounting and Administration of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH), with 101 participants from 25 states.

• 21st Mexican Olympics 2016 Veracruz, Veracruz from 7 to 11 March 2016, with the participation of 28 states and 109 participants.

• 22nd Mexican Olympics 2017 Querétaro from 16 to 21 May 2017, at the facilities of the ITESM Campus Querétaro, with 102 competitions from 25 states

In each Olympics, the state that will host the IMO is also chosen two years from now, in order to give the host states the opportunity to organize the competition in a timely manner. The responsibility of requesting the headquarters for the IMO falls on the state delegate.

• 23rd Mexican Olympics 2018 Mexico City

• 24th Mexican Olympics 2019 Aguascalientes

Mexico at the International Informatics Olympics

Mexico has been participating uninterruptedly in the International Computer Science Olympics since 1992, where it participated as an observer, beginning to bring competitors with the possibility of winning a medal starting in 1993.

In this entire period, Mexico has managed to win 20 bronze medals, 3 silver medals and 1 gold medal.

The competitors who have managed to obtain a medal are the following:

The competitor Saúl Germán Gutiérrez Calderón is the competitor who has obtained the most medals, 2 Bronze medals and 1 Silver medal.

The state that has won the most medals is the state of Guanajuato with a total of six medals; and the school that has won the most medals is the CECyT 9 of the IPN with four medals.

One of the purposes of the Mexican delegation in future IOIs is to raise the points of the entire delegation above the average of the points of all the delegations (points above the average for short), since the average indicates the cutoff of medals, and the higher it is, the more likely it is to obtain more than one medal in the same year or even silver or gold medals.

Finally, Mexico had the honor of hosting the 18th International Informatics Olympiad in 2006, and it was held in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, where Mexico won one of his bronze medals.

Places in the IMO by entity

Table of medals by entity