Hannah and Ellie represent New Zealand on World Stage

After a rigorous selection process, the exceptional coding prowess of Year 11 students, Hannah Withers and Ellie Zhou, saw them chosen to represent New Zealand on the world stage at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics (EGOI), held in the Netherlands during the Term 2 holidays.

New Zealand is one of a limited number of countries outside Europe which are invited to participate at the competition, but until this year, had only competed digitally.

Hannah Withers says the girls’ pathway to the competition began at the end of 2022, when they competed in a coding competition for Years 9 and 10 girls and finished second.

“From there we were selected for the NZIC camp, and after that participated in a selection contest for the top eight students. It was an honour for Ellie and I to be chosen as members of the first New Zealand EGOI team to compete at the competition in person,” she says.

Ellie Zhou says she was ‘thrilled and incredibly grateful’ to have made the team and found it ‘inspiring’ to compete against girls from around the world with a high level of skill and expertise.

Although representing their country, all competitors competed as individuals in two five-hour contests, with four challenging problems to solve each time, earning up to 100 points each.

Both girls did extremely well, with Hannah finishing 159th overall, and Ellie 168th.

In addition to the competition, Ellie’s highlights included connecting with like-minded people from many different countries. “It was amazing to work together during team-building activities and talk throughout the event.”

Hannah says the Kiwi girls bonded especially well with the Netherlands team. “It was amazing meeting so many girls who have the same interest, which can be hard to find in a male-dominated space like Computer Science.”

During the week of the competition, the girls also did some sightseeing in Amsterdam, and attended an Expo, which showed many different technological possibilities for the future.

“There were lots of fun activities at the Expo, like Dungeons and Dragons, and in one section, there were bartenders creating themed mocktails for us to drink while we talked to the sponsors and other women who work in the tech world,” says Hannah.

Ellie says attending talks about technology innovation in the wider world has inspired her to consider further study and a career in the industry.

“I am excited to become involved in this field and learn more about technology. With its rapid development, new and impactful innovations are frequently being created, and I hope to be able to contribute to that in the future.”

Hannah says attending EGOI opened her eyes to how critical software development is to the financial world, and the possibilities that came with that reliance. The experience has also helped to cement her future path.

“I had always wanted to go into engineering, or computer related subjects at university, but after attending the contest I know that software engineering is what I want to do.”