Three youths have been selected to represent the country in this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) Competition in Ontario, Canada.

The IOI competition is an international Information Communication Technology programme aimed at equipping students with firm computer programming skills at an early stage that enables them to develop excellent computational thinking capacity and problem solving skills.

The three Elias Awudu, Jonathan Mishiame and, Cecil Arthur all former students of Prempeh College, Apam Senior High School, Pope John’s Senior High School respectively will compete against 320 other contenders from 82 countries around the world.

The contest, to be held from 14th August through 21st August 2010 would involve two-days of competition and a one day practical session that would enable the contestants to familiarize themselves with the computer programming environment.

At a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, Ms. Dorothy Gordon, the Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT, (AITI-KACE) disclosed that Ghana has been participating in the World Programming Contest since 2008.

She said, Contestants from Ghana were selected through a nation-wide online under-20 competition and the three were further mentored over two months in advanced data structures and algorithms at the AITI-KACE to sharpen their skills for the competition as well as prepare into becoming ICT professionals capable of developing and maintaining innovative technology that will drive the economy.

Ms: Gordon said the brain power of the youth who are the future leaders of the country should be developed to enable them create the technology that our society requires and thanked the sponsors, Finatrade Foundation and Star Assurance for their support.