The 17-year-old King's High School pupil admits he has been spending almost every waking hour in front of a computer lately, in preparation for the 27th International Olympiad in Informatics, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, later this year.
He is one of four secondary school pupils selected to represent New Zealand at the two-day annual competitive programming competition, which consists of computer programming and solving algorithmic problems.
Pupils compete individually, with up to four students from each participating country.
Teams were selected through national computing camps and contests, which makes the olympiad one of the most prestigious computer science competitions in the world.
Philip was excited about attending the event because it was an opportunity to learn new things and meet like-minded people from around the world.
He has been working hard on preparations for the olympiad, which will be held from July 26 to August 2.
The long periods of screen time were finally beginning to pay off, he said.
''I tend to spend every waking moment in front of a computer screen at the moment.''
While some friends and family were worried he was spending too much time on his computer, he simply said: ''I don't think it's true you get square eyes from sitting in front of a computer too much. My eyes are fine.''
Philip said he loved informatics because he was able to get an immediate result from the work he had done.
''With computer programming, whenever you do something, you can immediately find out whether it is correct or not, unlike some other subjects.
''I like problem-solving.''
He plans to study computer sciences at university next year, and eventually hopes to forge a career in computer programming.
