Canadian Students Earn 25 Distinctions at the 2026 IAI²O Global Final
Canadian students delivered an outstanding performance at the 2026 International AI Innovation Olympiad (IAI²O) Global Final, held from September 24 to 27, 2026. Across AI for Science, AI for Business, and the AI Innovators Challenge, Canadian participants and Canada-representing teams earned 25 distinctions: 5 Gold, 5 Silver, 9 Bronze, and 6 Honorable Mentions.
The results below recognize 27 unique Canadian students. Team and project awards are counted once in the award totals, while students who earned awards in more than one track are counted once in the unique-participant total.
Results at a Glance
AI Innovators Challenge
Canadian competitors earned 11 individual distinctions in the in-person AI Innovators Challenge final.
| Award | Rank | Student | Total score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 2 | Qianhao Han | 188.5 |
| Gold | 3 | Xuanyi Zhang | 187.5 |
| Gold | 4 | Jeremy Zhang | 186.75 |
| Silver | 8 | Mingyang Yang | 165.25 |
| Silver | 9 | Edward Wang | 156.75 |
| Bronze | 14 | Aston Wan | 124.5 |
| Bronze | 15 | Xingyu Jiang | 121.5 |
| Bronze | 17 | Lucas Fang | 120.75 |
| Bronze | 18 | Yu (Mike) Chen | 120.5 |
| Honorable Mention | - | Jingtian (Eddie) Fu | - |
| Honorable Mention | - | Zihao (Peter) Yan | - |
AI for Science
Canadian teams earned 11 distinctions in the in-person AI for Science final.
| Award | Rank | Team | Canadian team member(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 4 | CellCast | Grace Zhou, Phoebe Sun |
| Gold | 10 | FrontierX | For Wa Yan |
| Silver | 23 | Neural Horizon | Alice Yu |
| Bronze | 31 | Rubber Duckies | Bill Gu |
| Bronze | 35 | Minions | Edwin Li, Silvia Jiang |
| Bronze | 43 | GUGUGAGA | Mingyang Yang |
| Bronze | 44 | Team Smoke | Hugo Bui, Ryan Zander |
| Honorable Mention | - | Climatic Malaria | Gordon Li, Manav Sanghrajka |
| Honorable Mention | - | Darkened | Michael Zhou |
| Honorable Mention | - | Horizon Research | Eason Zhou |
| Honorable Mention | - | Luella Labs | Luella Zhang |
AI for Business
Canadian students contributed to three award-winning projects across the in-person and remote AI for Business finals.
| Session | Award | Project | Canadian team member(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-Person | Silver | Ingreen | Edward Wang |
| In-Person | Bronze | Synthetica | Lucas Fang |
| Remote | Silver | Dennis's Team | Ziquan Wang, Zixuan Luo |
Dennis's Team was a Canada-USA team. It also included Wenyao Ma of the United States.
Congratulations to Canada's Competitors
CAIO congratulates every Canadian student whose creativity, technical ability, teamwork, and persistence were recognized at the Global Final. These results reflect the growing strength of Canada's student AI community and the commitment of the educators, mentors, families, and teammates who supported each participant.
Several students earned recognition in more than one track: Mingyang Yang, Edward Wang, and Lucas Fang each received awards in two different competitions.