Learning from OzCLO, the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad

The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO) started in 2008 in only two locations and has since grown to a na-tionwide competition with almost 1500 high school students participating in 2013. An Aus-tralian team has participated in the Interna-tional Linguistics Olympiad (ILO) every year since 2009. This paper describes how the competition is run (with a regional First Round and a final National Round) and the or-ganisation of the competition (a National Steering Committee and Local Organising Committees for each region) and discusses the particular challenges faced by Australia (tim-ing of the competition and distance between the major population centres). One major fac-tor in the growth and success of OzCLO has been the introduction of the online competi-tion, allowing participation of students from rural and remote country areas. The organisa-tion relies on the good-will and volunteer work of university and school staff but the strong interest among students and teachers shows that OzCLO is responding to a demand for linguistic challenges.