Tipp student to represent Ireland in prestigious event

Four winners will go on to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad this summer.

Maeve McCarthy from Presentation Secondary School Thurles competed at the National Final of the 18th All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO), hosted by the ADAPT Centre at Dublin City University (DCU) on Wednesday 4th March. The 100 finalists represented 56 secondary schools from 20 counties across the whole island and are competing for the chance to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Bucharest, Romania this July. AILO is run by ADAPT, the Research Ireland Centre for AI-driven Digital Content Technology. The competition challenges students to apply logic and reasoning to decode unfamiliar languages by analysing 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.

Speaking about the event, Director of ADAPT, Professor John Kelleher said: “AILO is a showcase of the analytical ability, curiosity and capability of Ireland’s young people. The students who have reached the final have demonstrated exceptional problem solving skills. The skills developed here are directly transferable to the real world and we hope will give them a love of computing and data-driven research. We are very proud to host the final at DCU and to support an all-island initiative that opens up these futures to students from every background.”

The finalists progressed through a preliminary round, involving nearly 1,000 competitors, held in schools earlier this year.

The results of the AILO final will be released mid-March. For those who want to try the challenge, sample puzzles can be downloaded from https://ailo.adaptcentre.ie/sample-puzzles/

AILO Sponsor Call

Having engaged over 60,000 students over the past 18 years, the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad is now seeking a key sponsor to help secure the future of this unique programme and to support its mission of building problem-solving confidence and STEM pathways for thousands of secondary students nationwide. Organisations interested in sponsorship are invited to contact the AILO team at ailo@adaptcentre.ie. More details at https://ailo.adaptcentre.ie/sponsor/