TEHRAN – The Iranian team, consisting of four high-school students, grabbed two silver medals and two bronze medals at the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), held from August 2 to 9 in Beijing, China.

Hosted by Beijing National Day School under the patronage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the competition brought together 310 students, forming 80 teams, from 63 countries and territories including Poland, France, Iran, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, China, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, India, Serbia, Russia, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and Sweden.

Arash Yousefnejad and Ali Shayan claimed the silver medals, while Parsa Golestani and Radin Rahmani-Nodehi won the Bronze medals, IRIB reported.

IOAI is the International Science Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence for high school students. It aims to inspire young people globally in science, focusing on AI. The competition provides a platform for top AI students selected through national competitions to compete, exchange ideas, and build connections, fostering a dialogue on AI’s opportunities and ethical challenges among students and the community.

This year’s IOAI featured two main modules: the Team Challenge and Individual Contest, designed to comprehensively assess students’ AI innovation capabilities.

The Team Challenge was themed ‘Future Factory’ and integrates simulation with real-world deployment. 

The Individual Contest includes a pre-event online warm-up and an on-site competition; students solved six problems (six hours per day), covering machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. 

Thanks to the Iranian delegation's efforts, the country is placed ahead of impressive opponents from the UK, South Korea, France, and Malaysia, ranking 16 up from 18 in 2024.

Iran grabbed a bronze medal in Bulgaria, 2024. The Iranian team delivered the best solution among 41 participating teams from 32 countries. The IOAI 2024 focused on Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Computer Vision.

The 3rd edition of IOAI will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2026.

‘Iran Digital’ program

The first phase of the Iran Digital initiative, a national free artificial intelligence (AI) training program, has been launched, targeting two million junior high school students and one thousand teachers.

Having completed the introductory courses, students will learn different functional areas of AI and carry out practical projects, IRNA quoted Abdolhossein Bahrami, an official with the Vice Presidency for Science, Technology, and Knowledge-Based Economy, as saying.

Recent achievements 

Iran won two silver medals and two bronze medals at the Eighth International Economics Olympiad (IEO) 2025, which was held from July 20 to 29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. This year, 68 countries participated in the IEO. 

Four Iranian students clinched three gold medals and a silver medal at the 36th International Biology Olympiad (IBO 2025), which was held from July 19 to 27 in Quezon City, Philippines, ranking second among 81 countries, up from third in 2024.

Five Iranian students secured silver medals at the 55th International Physics Olympiad, ranking 11th globally.

Held from July 18 to 24 in Paris, the IPhO 2025 brought together 440 candidates from over 90 countries.

Iran grabbed two gold medals, three silver medals, and a bronze medal at the 66th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO 2025), held from July 10-20 in Australia.

The event attracted more than 600 high school students from 112 countries.

Attending the second International Mathematics Olympiad for high school students in Turkmenistan, Iranian students managed to win seven bronze medals. The event was held from April 21 to 26. 

More than 230 talented students from 15 countries, including Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Armenia, Bulgaria, Nepal, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Qatar, and Turkmenistan, took part in the competition. 

MT/MG