Pasalao

Lao students of the Eastern Star Bilingual School in Vientiane won the bronze medal in the Infomatrix Olympiad, held in Romania recently against competitors coming from 45 other countries.

 

The medal winners are Mr Sokthavy Lathsavongsing, 13, and Mr Anoukith Phanithchaleun, 16, both secondary school students.

 

The information was reported to the Vientiane Times by their school teacher and Mr Sokthavy a few days ago after returning from the Olympiad.

 

At the competition, they presented their project on a school grading database, which was designed to help with recording grades and developing and maintaining a database in any small-scale public or private primary school, said Mr Sokthavy.

 

He explained further about their project that there are many websites offering online grading databases and some specific types of computer software focused on this need.

 

In many parts of the developing world, however, parents or students often do not have access to computers or internet technology and usually they also do not have the basic training to use them.

 

“Keeping student grades is important. We developed our database to be the simplest and cheapest solution which runs on all operating systems from Windows to Macintosh and Linux, so that whatever operating system is used all that is required is a simple Office programme,” Mr Sokthavy said.

 

He mentioned that they had spent four months at school in the preparation of their project, during which time they used their school as a test case. “We created a database that would work well for our school and any others sharing the same features. The system can easily be modified to adapt to all sizes and types of school.”

“We considered the average size of a class to be 24 but this could be modified for larger classes. In this project we considered the simplest design and easiest access.”

 

Mr Sokthavy said that participating in the event made them feel very proud, especially having been awarded a prize, and said it was thanks to the strong encouragement given by their teachers and parents who always supported them during their preparation work and also at the competition.

 

According to a report from their school teacher, achieving the bronze medal by Mr Sokthavy and Mr Anoukith marked the third time a duo of winning students from Eastern Star Bilingual School had been successful this year. The first were 15-year-old secondary students (grade 4) Miss Aphatsone Vongsana and Miss Marina Soukdala, who took part in the 9th International Dreamline Design Olympiad, held in Turkey and won the bronze medal.

 

The second team were Mr Vithoune Phonekeo, 15, and Mr Phouthaphone Saysana, 16. They won the bronze medal in the Senior Engineering competition at the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering and Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP 2013), held in the US.

 

 

By Phaisythong Chandara 
(Latest Update June 3, 2013)