The 8th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics
(IOAA) was held on 1-10 August 2014, in Suceava, Romania. IOAA
is an annual astronomy competition for high school students. It is one
of the international science Olympiads. The Olympiad was founded
from dissidence inside the International Astronomy Olympiad, in
order to increase the scope of the organization. The first IOAA was
held in Thailand in 2007, followed annually by events in Indonesia,
Iran, China, Poland, Brazil and Greece. In 2014 the host country was
Romania and then follows Indonesia during 2015. The table gives all
IOAA by years, countries, host cities and absolute winners.
In IOAA participant faces four exams:
1. Theoretical Exam: consisting on 15 short questions and 2 or 3 long questions, with 5 hours
to solve. It counts as 50% of the mark.
2. Data Analysis Exam: a paper- or computer-based task for analising actual data obtained
from professional astronomers, with usually 4 hours to solve. It counts as 25% of the mark. 8
3. Observational Exam: questions concerning direct observation of the sky (in the real sky or
in a planetarium), recognizing stars, constellations, nebulae, great circles, etc. It counts as
25% of the mark.
4. Team Competition: A separated competition, in which national teams are set to do a huge
task, involving both individual and group efforts, with theoretical and/or practical
reasoning.
The criteria for prize nominations at IOAA is as follows: the average of the three biggest marks
makes 100%. Gold medals are between 100 and 90%, silver medals are between 90 and 78%,
bronze medals are between 78 and 65% and honor mentions are between 65 and 50%.
There were 218 participants representing 45 teams from 39 countries. This year 5 Armenian
students took part in the IOAA. Two of them became owners of Silver medals; they are Arsen
Vasilyan (HPTchH) and Gevorg Martirosyan (Phys.-Math. School), two *** Bronze medals:
Edgar Vardanyan (Phys.-Math. School) and Vardges Mambreyan (Phys.-Math. School), and
Hrant Topchyan (Phys.-Math. School) *** honour mention. The team leaders were Marietta
Gyulzadyan (BAO researcher and Phys-Math School teacher) and Emilia Karapetyan (YSU
lecturer) .
