Philippine Teens Win International AI Olympiad Debut

Kazakhstan- All four members of the Philippines’ first ever delegation to the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) won individual medals in the country’s debut at bringing home one silver and three bronze medals against 466 high school competitors from 108 countries and territories. Now in its third year, the IOAI was hosted in Astana, Kazakhstan, this August.

The Philippines debuted with a bang at the 2026 International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), with (L-R) Jhareign S. Solidum of University of Mindanao Ilang High School (Bronze), Theo Lorenzo T. Bustamante of Philippine Science High School–CALABARZON Region Campus (Silver), Martin Gomez (Team Leader), Juan Mateo J. Desuasido of Brent International School Manila (Bronze), Ellison Matthew S. Ang of Philippine Science High School–Main Campus (Bronze) proudly waving the country’s colors. All four students won medals, besting over 400 rivals from around the world. PHOTO: IOAI Philippines

Theo Lorenzo T. Bustamante of Philippine Science High School–CALABARZON Region Campus won silver, while Ellison Matthew S. Ang of Philippine Science High School–Main Campus, Juan Mateo J. Desuasido of Brent International School Manila, and Jhareign S. Solidum of University of Mindanao Ilang High School each won bronze. Their results gave the four-member team a 100% medal rate.

Bustamante ranked 80th overall, placing among the top 17% of competitors. The Philippines was also among only 11 of 18 countries making their IOAI debut in 2026 to win at least one silver medal. Overall, the competition awarded 37 gold, 73 silver, and 110 bronze medals.

The IOAI tests students in machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and multimodal processing. The week-long competition, regarded as one of the world’s largest scientific olympiads, was officially opened by Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and featured international AI experts and technology leaders including Kai-Fu Lee. It was the first event hosted at the newly constructed facilities of the Kazakhstan National University of Sports.

The Philippine delegation was selected, trained, and managed by International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence Philippines (IOAI PH), hosted by the Ateneo Business Insights Laboratory for Development (BUILD) under the John Gokongwei School of Management, Ateneo de Manila University. Students qualified through a merit-based national screening process, with participation offered free of charge.

The BUILD-hosted IOAI PH served as a vital local engine for cultivating world-class national AI talent. Over ten months, Ateneo BUILD directly guided the Philippine team to victory by providing cloud testing infrastructure, proctoring invigilation environments, and conducting intensive, expert-led bootcamps covering machine learning theory, computer vision, natural language processing, audio processing, and VRAM constraint optimization.

“A 100% medal rate on our global debut proves that Philippine talent can immediately compete at the highest level of international AI,” stated IOAI PH Executive Director and Team Leader Martin Gomez.

“Outranking competitors from traditional global STEM powerhouses in our very first year establishes a baseline for what our students can accomplish with structured training, corporate backing, and national support. This victory is a shared triumph made possible by the tireless dedication of our coaches, the academic foundation of our schools, the sacrifices of our families, and the whole-of-nation backing of our community.”

IOAI medals are also recognized as indicators in admissions and competitive scholarship evaluations of academic merit by institutions including Ateneo de Manila University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The IOAI Board and Committee provided the delegation full financial assistance covering travel, lodging, meals, and registration. Government support came through the Office of the President, Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Education, and DOST–Science Education Institute.

Local supporters included Joy-Nostalg Group, the Desuasido Family, Times Paint Corporation, the Tiu Family, the Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Association of the Philippines, and Dashlabs.ai. TACTICS of Ateneo de Naga, XCITeS of Xavier University, SITEAO of Ateneo de Zamboanga, the Mapúa SHS Science Club, and Tomorrow of PSHS–Main also helped promote the national elimination rounds.

Global and host sponsors included Google, Huawei, Jane Street, Kaspi.kz, Freedom Holding Corp., IMC, Galbot, HRT, Alem.ai, Astana Hub, Documentolog, Higgsfield, and Deepinfra.

Held under the patronage of UNESCO, the IOAI was hosted by the Kazakhstan Competitive Programming Federation with support from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and Ministry of Education. Singapore will host the 4th IOAI in 2027.