Agastya Goel, a 17-year-old Indian-origin student from California, has won his second gold medal at the 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which took place in Egypt. Agastya, son of Stanford professor Ashish Goel, secured the fourth overall rank at the prestigious contest, also dubbed as the world's toughest programming competition for high school students.
Agastya scored 438.97 out of 600, while Kangyang Zhou of China topped the event with a perfect score of 600. A total of 34 students were awarded gold medals this year, including fellow Indian participant Kshitij Sodani, who ranked 21st.
This marks the 17-year-old's second gold at the IOI. His father, Ashish Goel, made waves in 1990 by topping the IIT-JEE exam before going on to build a distinguished career at companies like Twitter and Stripe.
Who is Agastya Goel?
Agastya Goel, a junior at Henry M Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, loves physics, computer science, and music. His hobbies include tennis, hiking, stargazing, and playing the guitar and piano.
Agastya's interest in physics began at a young age, with his father introducing him to the subject during car rides and hikes. One memorable experience was learning about projectile motion while playing Angry Birds. This sparked a fascination with physics that has only grown stronger over the years.
Agastya's competitive spirit was ignited through the USACO competition series, which he started preparing for in 6th grade. His hard work earned him a spot at the USACO training camp in his freshman year, followed by selection for the US IOI team.
Initially, Agastya considered majoring in computer science, but after exploring physics, he discovered a new passion. He spent 14 days intensively studying physics over winter break and was hooked.
