Ireland Wins Honourable Mention at International Linguistics Olympiad in Brazil

(L – R, Patrick Chen, Eliška Dvořáková, Dáithí de Buitléir, Paddy Clancy)

The Irish team is made up of the top four students from the 2024 All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) which is run by ADAPT, the SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, at the School of Computing, Dublin City University.

The team members are Paddy Clancy (18) from St Vincent’s Castleknock, Dáithí de Buitléir (18) from Coachford College Cork, Eliška Dvořáková (18) from St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule and Patrick Chen (17) from St. Gerard’s School. Paddy Clancy won an honourable mention in the Individual Round.

In the IOL, the students come up against 200 of the top linguistic problem-solvers, from  38 countries, and territories to tackle some of the toughest puzzles in logic and linguistics in little-known languages from all over the globe. The students faced a 6-hour individual round paper on Friday July 26th They also sat a challenging 4-hour team round on Monday July 29th. Well done to the whole team. They have all done us so proud!

The AILO finals see teenagers solve puzzles that require lateral thinking skills and the ability to think outside the box. Students must analyse the language data they are given to work out the ‘rules’ of the new language. These transferable skills are critical in preparing young people for a wide range of careers in computing, linguistics and language.  

Sample puzzles from the Olympiad can be downloaded at https://ailo.adaptcentre.ie/sample-puzzles/