RC students represented Turkey in the 13th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics held in Keszthely, Hungary on August 2-10. Competing against students from 46 countries, they solved questions related to the universe. The competition included 4 rounds: Theory, Data Analysis, Night Observation and Planetarium.
Despite having to prepare without mentors and the necessary equipment, the Turkish team received good scores in the individual competition. In the team competition, Tan and Bilge placed second and third, respectively.
Turkey had never participated in this Olympiad before; the students spent nine months trying to convince the Olympic committee and visited Istanbul Technical University several times along the way to organize Turkey's participation from scratch. The experience has led to the creation of an astronomy club at RC. The participants are also helping other RC students who wish to take part in the event next year.
