1st International Olympiad in AI founders: We have a record number of participating countries

Students from nearly 40 countries are coming to Bulgaria for the first edition of the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) (https://ioai-official.org/); an initiative launched by a team of five Bulgarian founders. The best high-school students from around the world will gather in Burgas from August 9th to 15th to showcase their knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence. International scholars from leading universities are involved in organising and creating the tasks while Google is the olympiad’s main sponsor.

Today, two of the founders, Elena Marinova and Alexander Velinov, tell us about the most important aspects of the First International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence – the idea, the organisation, and the future they are building together.

How did the idea for the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence come about?

Elena Marinova: After the ChatGPT’s massive breakthrough at the beginning of 2022, by the summer of 2023, businesses were already feverishly working on AI projects, and there were discussions in the olympiad circles about including artificial intelligence elements in competitions. The opinions about how to approach this, however, were not unanimous. Meanwhile, the field of artificial intelligence made a significant leap and established an independent position alongside related disciplines like computer science, linguistics, and mathematics. So, when Alex said something like, “Guys, what do you think about organising an AI olympiad?” there was this instant “click,” and we did it.

Alexander Velinov: It all started in 2023 when Bulgaria hosted the 20th International Olympiad in Linguistics. That’s when we got the idea and decided it was a natural progression to establish an AI olympiad here. Bulgaria was the first host of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in 1989, the International Olympiad in Linguistics (IOL) in 2003, and the European Youth Olympiad in Informatics (eJOI) in 2017. Additionally, we participated in the first international olympiads in mathematics in 1959, physics in 1967, chemistry in 1968, and biology in 1989. With IOAI, we are continuing this tradition.

What is the goal?

A.V.: As with all scientific international olympiads, we want to provide an opportunity for the best students in the world in the field of artificial intelligence to showcase their skills, to exchange experiences with their coaches on how they prepare, and to give the young participants the chance to build lifelong friendships.

E.M.: With artificial intelligence, there are also specific moral and ethical issues to take into account. We want this olympiad to draw attention to them and to say: “AI is here, it will continue to develop, there are challenges as well as justified fears. Ultimately, we as a society need to be informed and structure the development of AI in a way that brings only benefits to all of us.”

What is your personal motivation?

A.V.: I have a personal funny story. A large part of artificial intelligence is based on linguistics and computer science, which is my expertise. For years, people have been asking me, “Alex, what exactly is linguistics?” And I understand because it’s not taught in schools. Now it’s much easier – I answer, “You know what ChatGPT is, right? Well, that’s computer science and linguistics combined.”

E.M.: My 25-year career is in the IT business, but I’ve always been connected with education and turned out to be a serial co-founder of international competitions. I started with CodeIT (https://codeit.bg) in 2000, and in 2017, together with Krasi Manev, Biserka Yovcheva, and Alexey Khristov, we created EJOI (https://ejoi.org/). I was sure that IOAI had the potential to attract scholars and companies from around the world, and the team is incredible. Creating global initiatives that will remain after us brings indescribable satisfaction. I can’t wait to see the record number of participants for the first olympiad in Bulgaria and how IOAI will spread around the world in the future.

A.V.: That’s right, and I have another important motivation – to show Bulgaria to the world and to solidify our position as a destination where new technologies are developed and implemented at a global level.

How is a new international olympiad founded and organised?

A.V.: Everything has been rather hectic lately. At first, I thought ten countries would come, I hoped it would become around fifteen. But now it’s close to 40. This is already an event on a completely different scale to our initial expectations – during the organisation, we had to change hotels, venues, and many other operational aspects – it’s one thing to talk about 70-80 people and another for 200. Also – it’s all happening during the peak summer season in Burgas.

E.M.: The number of participating countries is a record for a first olympiad. The previous record was held by eJOI with 24. We’re surpassing ourselves once again.

How did IOAI’s partners react to the invitation to join something that no one in the world has done before?

E.M.: The main challenge was and continues to be to inform as many people and organisations worldwide that IOAI is happening and it’s huge. Otherwise, once communicated, it’s not difficult to spark interest in a field that has rapidly become a leading topic for business and society in recent years. With the partners we already knew, only a few words were needed. For example, hosting IOAI in Burgas happened like this: I called the city’s mayor and said, “We are organising an international olympiad in artificial intelligence…” and he simply finished my sentence, “…in Burgas!” We already have significant interest from several countries to host IOAI in the coming years.

Why did you propose Burgas as the host city for the olympiad?

A.V.: There are several reasons – first, in Burgas we have enormous support personally from the mayor and the entire municipal team – both financial and logistical, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. Also, Burgas and our Black Sea coast are destinations worth seeing, and we believe our guests will fall in love with Bulgaria.

Tell us about some of the other partners of IOAI 2024?

E.M.: The President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Rumen Radev, is the patron of the event. Among the official figures who have confirmed their support are the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Dimitar Glavchev, the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Galin Tsokov and the Regional Governor of Burgas, Prof. Maria Neykova. Bulgaria is looking forward to the first IOAI.

The olympiad is held with the institutional support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria and the warm hospitality of the Municipality of Burgas, represented by Mayor Mr. Dimitar Nikolov, Deputy Mayor Mr. Nenov, and their entire team.

From the business side, Google was among the first to support us and became a platinum sponsor, while the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is not only a gold sponsor, but their scientists actively participate in creating the tasks for the olympiad. We are also deeply grateful to the silver and bronze sponsors who help make the competition interesting and comfortable for all participants.

A.V.: I continue with our organisational partners who helped us manage the great interest in IOAI and navigate the rapid development of tools in the field of AI. In the busiest season for Burgas, Vivacom ensures that competitors have access to high-speed internet. The Bulgarian company elektrick.me and the start-up American-German Neural Frames taught us the latest at the intersection of science and art in collaboration with artificial intelligence and, together with our scientific jury, created the practical task. The Bulgarian Association of Olympic Teams in Natural Sciences stood firmly by IOAI with all its resources.

Our incredible jury from around the world created the tasks and is eagerly anticipating the teams’ solutions, while the schools in Burgas will host the two competition days, and volunteers from them will be closely involved with the IOAI participants.

And let’s not forget the Bulgarian pop star Maria Ilieva, without whom the practical round could not happen.

About IOAI

The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) is a STEM-focused competition aimed at inspiring, developing, and promoting the best students in AI globally. Each year, IOAI will highlight different AI fields; this year, the focus is on Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, and Computer Vision. 

As an AI Olympiad, IOAI will actively engage in discussions with the general public about the ethical aspects and the future of AI, primarily through its practical round. The founders also aim to involve a local celebrity each year to promote IOAI and together with the students to inspire broader community dialogue about AI.

The 1st IOAI will be held in Burgas, Bulgaria August 10-14, 2024 under the Patronage of the President of Bulgaria.

Founders

The olympiad is founded by the LERAI Foundation of five Bulgarians: Lora, Elena, Rosi, Alex, and Iva.

• Lora Dineva is dedicated to education development with over ten years of experience organizing national linguistic events, including preparing teams and hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics and is currently pursuing a master’s in artificial intelligence for business and finance. Professionally, Lora applies AI to improve efficiency and innovation in the government and financial sectors.

• Elena Marinova has a 25-year career in the IT sector as a co-founder of Musala Soft, now part of the IT business of the KKCG group. She is a leader in business excellence, innovation, and STEM education development. Elena is on the boards of companies, IT associations, and NGOs. As a public figure, she speaks and writes about leadership, technological trends, innovation, and education. Elena holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in strategic management. She is the co-founder of the oldest private programming competition, CodeIT.bg (2000), and the European Junior Olympiad in Informatics (EJOI, 2017).

• Rositsa Dekova is an associate professor at the University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Her passion for linguistics began in high school when she won national computer linguistics competitions. This passion continues in her academic and research career. Rositsa holds two master’s degrees in linguistics and software engineering from the University of Plovdiv and a PhD in linguistics from NTNU, Trondheim. Over the years, she has actively participated in organizing linguistics and computational linguistics competitions and conferences. She is a member of the organizing committee for two international linguistics olympiads (2015, 2023).

• Aleksandar Velinov became interested in scientific competitions in school and won the national linguistics competition in the 12th grade. As a student, he began teaching linguistics and has been leading classes in all major schools in Sofia for over 20 years. Alex works in the IT sector but maintains his hobby, leading the Bulgarian national team almost continuously since the first International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in 2003. Alex has organized IOL twice (2015, 2023) as chairman and has been a member of the IOL international board since 2015.

• Iva Gumnishka is a former competitor and gold medalist in mathematical linguistics from IOL. She is the founder of Humans in the Loop, a social enterprise processing data for artificial intelligence, and a board member of ForHumanity, which works in the field of AI system auditing.

Sponsors and Partners

The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence is organized under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, with institutional support from the Ministry of Education and Science and the Municipality of Burgas.

The Platinum sponsor is Google.

The Gold sponsors are Vivacom, MBZUAI. 

Silver sponsors are Jane Street, Ontotext, SoftUni and Leading Coding. 

Bronze sponsors are Musala Soft, Team-GPT, Anthill, DiaDraw, Non-Trivial, Sofia Tech Park, Wiser, Print.bg, FlagFlag.bg. 

Organizational partners are theNatural Sciences Olympic Teams Association, Elektrick.me, Neutral Frames, Hotel Primoretz Burgas, Pobeda, Harmonika, Sindeo, MNKnowledge, Arcana Labs. 

Academic partners are MBZUAI, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, INSAIT, MIT, University of Copenhagen, Sharif University of Technology, University of Oxford, Technology Innovation Institute, University of Houston, PPMG “Acad. Nikola Obreshkov”, Burgas, OU “Alexander Georgiev-Kodzhakafaliata”, Burgas, and PKPI Burgas.