The Cyprus Computer Society (CCS), in collaboration with the Education Ministry, this week hosted the Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics (jBOI) 2025 at the Tassos Mitsopoulos Lyceum in Aradippou.

The jBOI 2025, which took place on Wednesday, brought together delegations from nine Balkan countries.

The jBOI is an annual programming competition that gathers talented secondary school pupils from Balkan countries.

Each participating country is represented by a team of exceptional young programmers, aged 10 to 15, who compete in solving demanding algorithmic problems, following the rules of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).

The closing ceremony for the jBOI 2025 was addressed by Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou.

The Deputy Minister spoke about the importance of fostering programming skills, which can be a valuable asset for the young participants, regardless of their future career path.

He also stated that he himself began his career as a computer programmer.

The closing event took place on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., at the Multipurpose Centre for Social Welfare and Employment in Larnaca Municipality.

Greetings were also extended by the Deputy Mayor of Larnaca, Iasonas Iasonidis, and the Inspector of Informatics for Secondary Education, Michalis Farazis.

The President of the Cyprus Computer Society, Andreas Loutsios, thanked everyone who contributed to Cyprus’ successful hosting of nine countries for a week of inspiration, learning, healthy competition, and cross-cultural exchange.

This was followed by the awards ceremony for the contestants, where the young Balkan students distinguished themselves, with the Cypriot delegation achieving excellent performances.

The full results were posted on the competition’s website.

The closing ceremony featured a musical performance by pupils from the Mikis Theodorakis Music School of Larnaca.

Notably, the opening ceremony, held on Saturday, October 25, included music and dance performances by pupils and teachers from the Aradippou Lyceum, which hosted the two competition days in its modern informatics classrooms.

The Minister of Education, Sport and Youth congratulated the participating delegations, with her speech being delivered by the Inspector of Informatics for Secondary Education, Michalis Farazis, while the Mayor of Aradippou, Christodoulos Partou, had also extended a greeting.

During the week, in addition to the competitive section, the participants had the opportunity to tour the historical centre of Larnaca. They also visited Lefkara.

The students took part in interactive activities organised by JetBrains.

The young programmers also had the opportunity to experience the rich history, natural beauty, and gastronomic traditions of Cyprus.

The Organising and Scientific Committees worked tirelessly for months to ensure the successful organisation of the competition and to provide the renowned Cypriot hospitality.

The members of the Board of Directors and staff of the Cyprus Computer Society handled the organisational part of the event, meticulously attending to every detail.

Teachers from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth were responsible for the technical and scientific aspects.

These same educators, drawn from all districts of Cyprus, are responsible for preparing the Cypriot delegation.

Specifically, pupil Mariza Paspalli won a Gold medal. Pupils Alexis Tsangaris and Petros Vourmas won Bronze medals.

The remaining members of the delegation (Sophoclis Andronicou, Andreas Tziapouras, Andreas Kessides, Christoforos Pittalis, and Andreas Charalambides) also made a commendable effort, the society mentioned.

The leaders of the Cypriot delegation were Secondary School teachers Akis Sykpetritis and Demetris Livadiotis.

With this year’s distinctions, Cyprus has now won a total of eight medals and one honorary distinction across the five international Informatics Olympiads in which it participated in 2025, thus continuing its tradition of excellence and the excellent performance of Cypriot teams in recent years.

The national student competition used to select the team that will represent Cyprus in international events, the Pancyprian Informatics Olympiad, for the current school year will be announced shortly.

The Pancyprian Informatics Olympiad 2025-26 is organised by the CCS in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth, with support from ECCOMMBX, XM, Oracle, and ICDL.