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All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad.

 

2024

The All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) is a contest in which secondary school students develop their own strategies for solving problems in fascinating languages from around the globe. Students must use their ingenuity to solve Puzzles such as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, decoding numerical spy codes, and interpreting ancient Mayan poetry.  No prior knowledge of linguistics or a second language is required, as even the hardest problems require only logical ability, patient work, and a willingness to think around corners. AILO introduces students to linguistics (i.e. the study of human language) and to the application of logic to problems of language understanding and translation. The goal is to develop students’ problem-solving skills and to inspire them to consider the fascinating range of Careers at the intersection of computing, linguistics and language. You can read the AILO Brochure 2023/4  for more detail.

 

  

How it works

Students must use their ingenuity to solve puzzles such as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, decoding numerical spy codes, and interpreting ancient Mayan poetry.

The AILO competition is comprised of two rounds:

  • The Preliminary Round : This portion of the competition will be held in participating schools in late January online. The paper will be emailed out to teachers for printing and must be taken under exam conditions. Student answers are via an online submission. Schools and individual students can register here. You must have a teacher contact to undertake AILO unless you are home-schooled.

  • AILO Final : The top 100 students of the preliminary round (regardless of age) qualify to compete at the National Final of AILO in a Dublin university in March. During this final the students will participate in an individual round as well as a team round. The top 4 students of the individual round will qualify to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in July.
  • International Linguistics Olympiad : The IOL typically takes place in July every year and the location changes every year. Training for the Irish team will begin once the four students are selected. For more information on IOL click here. Team training will  begin with a meet up of the team followed by online sessions once a month after the national final. A 3-day training session will take place before the beginning of the IOL. To see some IOL Puzzles click here.

    Timeline

    Here is an overview of all events and preparation leading up to and including AILO and Internationals 

    The International Linguistic Olympiad 2024 will take place in Brasilia, Brazil! 

    Timeline

Who is eligible?

All second level students, registered with a school or registered home-schooled in Ireland, both North and South, are eligible to participate. You cannot participate in a ‘gap year’ after you have left school.

Students may only participate in one national linguistics Olympiad in a school year (e.g. You can not take part in AILO and the UKLO / German Olympiad etc. at the same time).

The challenge can be taken by students at any stage in their second level studies, and we have two age groups.

  • Junior Category is open to students under 16 years old registered in a secondary school on the island of Ireland.
  • Senior Category is open to students 16 years and up registered in a secondary school on the island of Ireland.

Both Junior and Senior Category students will take the same puzzles and be marked in the same way. However, we will award prizes and trophies to the winners of each category.

Register

You can register for AILO 2023/2024 below

Take me straight to SCHOOL REGISTRATION

Click here to read our AILO 2023/2024 brochure. 

Now a key element of the ADAPT Centre’s Problem-Solving Initiative, you can qualify to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Brazil in July 2024.

The qualifying round will take place in your own school at the end of January 2024. This preliminary round will be online. The final round is planned in-person for March 2024 (location tbc).

School Registration

If you are a teacher registering a number of students from a school, you can register on the School Registration Page. Please note that if you register, we take your school and contact details for the purposes of the AILO competition. We will only use your information for these purposes and it will not be shared with anyone else.

Individual Student Registration of Interest

If you are an individual student, you can register your interest on the Individual Student Page. Please note, if you are under 16, your teacher can only register the school. Please note that if you register, we take your school and contact details for the purposes of the AILO competition. We will only use your information for these purposes and it will not be shared with anyone else. If you want to take part in the individual round, a teacher must register themselves to receive the link for the online round via the school registration.

 

ADAPT Linguistic Problem Solving Workshops 2023/2024

If you / your students would like to attend a workshop, please register for AILO 2023/2024 HERE. Workshop detail is sent out to schools who are registered for AILO.

Please find Workshop Materials from previous years here.

Thanks to funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media over the Summer, we developed materials for workshops around the island from September 2023- January 2024.  We will post the puzzles and solutions here once the workshops are near completion in schools.

This list will be updated regularly. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to request places at one of these workshops. This depends on availability of spaces and school policy.

Wexford

Creagh College, Gorey Completed

Bridgetown College, Bridgetown Tuesday 16th January 2024

2023

100 young linguistic problem-solvers competed at the national finals of the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) in ADAPT at Dublin City University (DCU) on Wednesday 1st March 2023. Run by ADAPT, the world-leading SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, the contest challenges secondary school students to apply logic and reasoning skills to solve complex puzzles in unfamiliar languages.

This year’s AILO Champion is Naoise Sheridan (17) from Tullamore College, Offaly who has earned a place representing Ireland at the 20th anniversary International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in Bansko, Bulgaria in July 2023. Joining Naoise on the international team are Finn Wallace (17) from CBC Monkstown, Dublin (who was on the team in 2022), Paddy Clancy (17) from St Vincent’s Castleknock, Dublin and Megan Boland (17) from Ursuline Secondary School, Thurles, Tipperary. Megan was previously Junior Champion in 2021.

Ireland team selected for International Linguistics Olympiad 2023

The 2023 Junior Champion is Michael Costello (15) from St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule. Second place Junior went to Gráinne Scott (15) from Presentation Community College Terenure. Daniel Scally (15) and Oisín Sheridan (15) from Tullamore College got third place and fourth place Junior. The team competition in the afternoon was won by St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule in Dublin.

The 100 national finalists, from 49 schools in 21 counties, had come through preliminary rounds held in schools all over the island in January. More than 3,500 students registered for this year’s contest. Competing in individual and team rounds, the finalists are faced with anything from deciphering ancient Norse scripts about Thor to working out unusual counting systems such as Bukiyip where there are two counting systems, depending on what you are counting!

The AILO finals see teenagers solve puzzles that require lateral thinking skills and the ability to think outside the box.  Students must analyse the language data they are given to work out the ‘rules’ of the new language. These transferable skills are critical in preparing young people for a wide range of careers in computing, linguistics and language.

AILO Winners 2022

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AILO 2022 Award Winners with Prof. Vincent Wade and Dr. Cara Greene

Year Prize Name School Note
2022 AILO Champion Eoin Boushel Belvedere College  
2022 2nd Place Finn Wallace CBC Monkstown  
2022 3rd Place Justin Cunningham Patrician Secondary School, Newbridge  
2022 4th Place Matthew McKeever Methodist College Belfast  
         
2022 Junior Champion Turlagh McDaid St.Columba’s Comprehensive  
2022 2nd Place Adam Cunningham Coláiste an Eachréidh, Galway  
2022 3rd Place Finn O’Toole St.Vincents Castleknock College  
2022 4th Place Niamh Armstrong Meánscoil Gharman, Wexford  
         
2022 Team Winners Henry Li Gonzaga  
    Jacques Murphy    
    Seán Radcliffe    
    Cormac Hannon