Four winners will go on to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad this Summer.
4th March 2026: One hundred of Ireland’s top teenage problem solvers gathered on Wednesday in Dublin City University (DCU) for the national final of the ADAPT All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO). The finalists represent 56 secondary schools from 20 counties across the whole island and are competing for the chance to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Bucharest, Romania this July. AILO is run by ADAPT, the Research Ireland Centre for AI-driven Digital Content Technology. The competition challenges students to apply logic and reasoning to decode unfamiliar languages by analysing 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.
Speaking about the event, Director of ADAPT, Professor John Kelleher said: “AILO is a showcase of the analytical ability, curiosity and capability of Ireland’s young people. The students who have reached the final have demonstrated exceptional problem solving skills. The skills developed here are directly transferable to the real world and we hope will give them a love of computing and data-driven research. We are very proud to host the final at DCU and to support an all-island initiative that opens up these futures to students from every background.”
Today’s finalists progressed through a preliminary round, involving nearly 1,000 competitors, held in schools earlier this year. Competing in individual and team rounds, they will vie for the honour to be one of the four winners who will represent Ireland on the international stage in Bucharest this summer.
The results of the AILO final will be released mid-March. For those who want to try the challenge, sample puzzles can be downloaded from https://ailo.adaptcentre.ie/sample-puzzles/
