North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition
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The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO) is a computational linguistics competition for high school students in the United States and Canada that has been held since 2007. Around 1000 students participate annually.[1] Since 2008 the contest has consisted of two rounds, the second being administered to the top scorers in the first round. The top-scoring students on the second round qualify for the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL), one of the international science olympiads.
History
Since the mid-1960s, problem-solving competitions in linguistics for secondary school students have been taking place at various locations around the world. In Russia, the Moscow and St Petersburg Linguistic Olympiads are credited with inspiring hundreds of young talented scholars to choose linguistics as an academic major and profession. Presently there are national contests in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa, as well as North America. NACLO is part of a consortium that shares resources with other English-speaking contests such as the United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad, OzCLO (Australia) and the All-Ireland Linguistics Olympiad. There is also an International Linguistic Olympiad in which students from many countries compete, as well as dozens of local competitions held in individual towns and schools across Europe and the USA.
In 1998 the first US Linguistics Olympiad was held at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, in 1998. 18 students participated the first year, 88 participated the second year, and 67 participated the third year of this local pilot program. From 2001 to 2006, the program existed as an informal, web-based educational activity known as the Linguistics Challenge.
The two US teams in each year won several awards at the ILO in 2007 and 2008. Each year, one of the two US teams won a gold medal (or first diploma) in the team contest. In addition, several team members won individual medals.[2][3]
Format
The format of the contest changed significantly between 2007 and 2008. The 2007 contest consisted of eight problems given in a single round open to all participants. The 2008 competition consisted of two rounds. The first round was open to all contestants and consisted of a three-hour, five-problem written examination. The top scorers on the open round advanced to the invitational round, which was a five-hour, seven-problem written examination divided into two parts; the first part lasted 3 and a half hours and contained five problems, while the second part lasted one and a half hour and contained two problems.[4] The top eight scorers from the invitational round were selected to participate in the ILO. The booklets with problems and solutions are available on the main NACLO website.[5]
ILO qualifiers
From 2007 to 2010 the USA sent two teams annually to the ILO.
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In 2011 the USA sent three teams, and Canada also sent a team.
| Country | Team | Name | Award | Team award | Team leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | "Red" | Aaron Klein | bronze medal | gold trophy, highest combined individual scores |
Dragomir Radev |
| Wesley Jones | silver medal | ||||
| Duligur Ibeling | silver medal | ||||
| Morris Alper | gold medal, best solution to problem 2 | ||||
| "White" | Erik Andersen | honorable mention | |||
| Allen Yuan | silver medal | ||||
| Chelsea Voss | honorable mention | ||||
| Arjun Srinivasan | honorable mention | ||||
| "Blue" | Alexander Wade | silver medal, best solution to problem 4 |
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| Ophir Lifshitz | honorable mention | ||||
| Caroline Ellison | honorable mention, best solution to problem 3 | ||||
| Rachel McEnroe | |||||
| Canada | Keunjae Go | Patrick Littell | |||
| Jordan Ho | |||||
| Daniel Mitropolsky | bronze medal | ||||
| William Zhang | honorable mention | ||||
In 2012, the USA sent two teams, and Canada also sent a team.
| Country | Team | Name | Award | Team Award | Team leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | "Red" | Darryl Wu | silver medal, best solution to problem 1 |
2nd highest combined individual scores | Dragomir Radev, Lori Levin |
| Anderson Wang | gold medal, best solution to problem 4 | ||||
| Samuel Zbarsky | honorable mention | ||||
| Allan Sadun | silver medal | ||||
| "Blue" | Alexander Wade | gold medal, best solution to problem 3, best solution to problem 5 |
gold trophy, 3rd highest combined individual scores | ||
| Aaron Klein | silver medal | ||||
| Aidan Kaplan | |||||
| Erik Andersen | bronze medal | ||||
| Canada | Simon Huang | Patrick Littell | |||
| Keunjae Go | honorable mention | ||||
| David Penco | |||||
| Qin Long | |||||
In 2013, the USA sent two teams, and Canada also sent a team.
| Country | Team | Name | Award | Team Award | Team leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | Red | Aaron Klein | silver medal | gold trophy, highest combined individual scores |
Dragomir Radev, Lori Levin |
| Max Schindler | bronze medal | ||||
| Alexander Wade | gold medal | ||||
| Tom McCoy | bronze medal | ||||
| Blue | Rebecca Burks | honorable mention | |||
| Jeffrey Ling | silver medal | ||||
| Erik Andersen | honorable mention | ||||
| Simone Stoyen | |||||
| Canada | Jordan Ho | Patrick Littell | |||
| Janis Chang | |||||
| Daniel Lovsted | bronze medal | ||||
| Stella Lau | honorable mention | ||||
In 2014, the USA sent two teams, and Canada also sent a team.
| Country | Team | Name | Award | Team Award | Team leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | "Red" | Darryl Wu | gold medal, 2nd place individual, best solution to problem 2 |
gold trophy, highest combined individual scores |
Dragomir Radev, Lori Levin |
| Jackie Bredenberg | honorable mention | ||||
| Alexander Babiak | silver medal | ||||
| Deven Lahoti | silver medal | ||||
| "Blue" | Brandon Epstein | honorable mention | |||
| James Bloxham | bronze medal | ||||
| Kevin Li | bronze medal | ||||
| Catherine Wu | silver medal, best solution to problem 4 | ||||
| Canada | Daniel Lovsted | gold medal, 3rd place individual |
2nd highest combined individual scores | Heather Newell | |
| Yan Huang | silver medal | ||||
| Simon Huang | bronze medal | ||||
| Minh-Tam Nguyen | honorable mention | ||||
References
- ^ "NACLO 2010 Press Release". May 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^ "The Fifth International Linguistics Olympiad: Results". August 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^ "6th International Olympiad in Linguistics". August 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^ "NACLO Rules (2008)". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^ "NACLO 2009—Practice Problems". Carnegie Mellon University. October 2009. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ ILO 2007 Participants
- ^ ILO 2007 Results
- ^ ILO 2008 Participants
- ^ ILO 2008 Results
- ^ ILO 2009 Participants
- ^ ILO 2009 Results
- ^ Press Release 2010
- ^ ILO 2010 Participants
- ^ ILO 2010 Results
- ^ Press Release 2011
- ^ ILO 2011 Participants
- ^ ILO 2011 Results
- ^ ILO 2012 Results
- ^ Press Release 2012
- ^ ILO 2013 Results
- ^ ILO 2014 Results
- "NACLO 2009". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- "Team USA Brings Home the (Linguistics) Gold". National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering News. National Science Foundation. August 15, 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- "Team USA Takes the Prize at the International Linguistics Olympiad in St. Petersburg, Russia". National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering News. National Science Foundation. August 17, 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2008.