In the Final on Wednesday, in which each team presented one more problem, South Korea came out on top and was named “Winner of the Tournament”.

The German team came in fifth place after Belarus and received the silver medal. According to the regulations places four to eight are awarded the silver medal.

On Friday morning the 28 teams and those accompanying them travelled to Stuttgart where they visited the Daimler plant and the Mercedes Museum. On Sunday morning the 300 visitors will then embark on their journey home.

The World Physics Cup will take place in Taiwan next year.

On Thursday evening the winning teams of the Physics World Cup were honoured in Bad Saulgau. The teams coming in first, second and third were all awarded the gold medal. South Korea was named “Winner of the Tournament” having achieved the highest number of points in the Final.

Alan Allinson, President of the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT), and District President Hermann Strampfer presenting the silver medal to  the German captain, Michael Kern from Biberach. According to the regulations teams coming in fourth to eighth receive the silver medal.

The gold medal winners of the Physics World Cup 2012. The teams from left to right are Iran, South Korea and Singapore.

Handing over of the pennant to Taiwan, the next year’s IYPT host.

The teams of Korea, Singapore and Iran are getting ready!
First we’ll hear WuHyun Sohn from Korea with his report on Problem 1. Gaussian cannon!

President Alan Allinson is asking everybody in, the Stadtforum Bad Saulgau is completely filled, everything is prepared and the teams are getting ready!

Introduction of the teams:

Three former participants in the Jury: Ilya, Martin and Kathryn:

Korea’s report hast just started. Here’s Singapore’s mascot listening carefully:

The jury for IYPT 2012 finals:

Alan Allinson, Prapun Manyum, John Balcombe, Ivan Antsipau, Chuanyong Li, Valentin Lobyshev, Samuel Byland, Kreso Zadro, Kathryn Zealand, Martin Plesch, Othmar Marti and Ilya Martchenko

The opponent takes the floor:

Discussion, whiteboard:

From left to right:
Team Iran – Reviewer – Seyed Mohammadali Modarressi
Team Singapore – Opponent – Jie Yeo
Team Korea – Reporter – WuHyun Sohn

Last year Korea ended their concluding remarks with the words “This is physics” – today we get to see more fun videos

Juror grades are in:

REP: 8 8 9 8 7 8 7 7 7 8 8
OPP: 8 8 8 8 8 6 8 8 8 9 8
REV: 8 9 7 9 9 7 8 9 8 8 9

Stage 2 is about to start.
Daniel Keat Kay Mark will do his report on 5. Bright waves.

I asked the teams before if they needed a table for showing experiments. Sadly they don’t

It’s a fight of Captains:

Grades from stage 2:
REP: 9 9 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 7 10
OPP: 7 8 8 9 8 7 7 7 6 6 9
REV: 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 7 8

Waiting for Iran’s report. They might well win this IYPT if their report is good – Korea and Singapore got the exact same points for their reports. It’s your turn now, Rojin Anbarafshan!

REP: 7 9 10 9 9 8 8 6 6 7 8
OPP: 9 9 9 8 7 9 7 10 9 7 9
REV: 8 8 7 7 8 7 8 8 8 7 9

So the winners are:

1) Korea
2) Iran
3) Singapore

Congrats to everyone!

The teams in first to third places will receive gold medals since according to the rules all the finalists are awarded the gold. During the final round tomorrow the young researchers will be able to demonstrate their skills once more, this time with a project of their choice and not one chosen by the opposing team. The final round determines the “Winner of the Tournament”.

South Korea and Singapore confidently led throughout the preliminary rounds. Germany with 196.9 points came in fifth after Belarus with 197 points. Silver will go to teams coming in at fourth to eighth place, bronze to teams in ninth to fourteenth place.

The medals will be awarded on during the Award Ceremony on Thursday evening. But before taking possession of their medals the participants will go to Friedrichshafen for a Lake Constance Day by invitation of ZF Friedrichshafen, the automotive supplier. On Wednesday afternoon the young scientists have the choice of visiting either the medical technology enterprises Aesculap and Karl Storz in Tuttlingen, the pharmaceutical firm Böhringer Ingelheim in Biberach, Liebherr in Ehingen or Claas in Bad Saulgau. On Friday morning the 28 teams and those accompanying them will go to Stuttgart to visit the Daimler plant as well as the Mercedes Museum. On Sunday morning the 300 guests will then set off for their trip back home.

The German Team:

Michael Kern (Captain), 17 Jahre, Biberach Wieland Gymnasium Biberach Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg( SFZ®), Ulm

Paul Hege, 16 Jahre, Kassel Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Clemens Borys, 19 Jahre, Vellmar Friedrichsgymnasium Kassel Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Tobias Schemmelmann, 18 Jahre, Lörrach Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium Lörrach phænovum Schülerforschungszentrum Lörrach-Dreiländereck

Lars Dehlwes, 16 Jahre, Erlangen Ohm-Gymnasium Erlangen, Erlanger Schülerforschungszentrum (ESFZ)

Contact:
Bettina Zeiß
Rombach & Jacobi Kommunikation
E-Mail: zeiss@rombach-jacobi.de
Handy: 0171 9320775

Weitere Informationen:

http://iypt.de

www.facebook.com/iypt2012

www.sfz-bw.de

Korean Team

German Team

About the Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg (SFZ) (Student Research Center, South Württemberg)

The Schülerforschungszenbtrum Südwürttemberg in Bad Saulgau was founded in 1999 after a German team consisting of students from the region of Upper Swabia had won the most important physics competition for students, the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) for the second time. Since then it has been promoting and supporting talented young scientists and by doing so would like to counteract the shortage of technical experts. In the meantime further research centers have been created in Tuttlingen, Ulm and Friedrichshafen/Überlingen.

The SFZ is a forge for young talent, an idea workshop, a research laboratory, a knowledge center, a center for gifted students – and a social meeting place. Several hundred students of different ages and from different areas of Baden-Wuerttemberg come regularly to Bad Saulgau or one of the other locations to do independent research, without restrictive guidelines and without a schedule. What they have to bring along is curiosity, stamina, willingness to work on a team and to take part in competitions. They learn to work independently, to research complex questions together with others without knowing beforehand whether or a solution exists. They also learn how to do research as well as  acquiring techniques and skills they will need later in their studies or professional lives.

At the SFZ the students’ performance is of the highest level. And yet the Schülerforschungszentrum is not an exclusive institute for the gifted. Although the pupils should be prepared to work hard, be curious and have a good knowledge of mathematics, it is just as important to be willing to work on a team. Social skills are fostered in such an atmosphere. In addition to physics projects, there are also projects in the fields of mathematics, information technology, chemistry, biology, earth sciences and technology. Physics workshops are also offered to primary school students.

Interested and motivated students from the middle and upper divisions of Gymnasiums (college preparatory schools) have the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the sciences or prepare themselves for competitions. Students decide for themselves how often they come to the SFZ because they work not only at the SFZ but also at home and at their schools. The SFZ is supported by the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the city of Bad Saulgau, Sigmaringen County, by foundations, companies and private donors.

www.sfz-bw.de

www.facebook/sfzbw

Well, and then there’s the actual tournament statistics, starting with the results.
This graphic shows what problems were presented and rejected:

And I’m sure you want to know what the grades looked like – here’s the jurors’ means and standard deviation:

Also, in case you wonder if the jurors were less homogeneous in their grading: Here’s the mean of std. devs and of min-max-differences for each performance:

IYPT2010: 0.8058 / 2.3137
IYPT2011: 0.9094 / 2.5206
IYPT2012: 0.8739 / 2.4333

So no, the grades weren’t too inconsistent, even more consistent than last year.

When Martin Plesch talked to the Jury, he was hoping for an overall mean of 5.5 (in the center of our scale) and a reasonable standard-deviation, somewhere around 1.5. Here’s the number for the IYPT2012:
Mean of Juror means: 5.82
Mean of Juror Stddev: 1.54

So our Jurors did a pretty good job I’d say!

oh, and seeing this graph, here’s one from our server, showing the traffic to and from the server that hosts iypt,org, newtoon, and the results:

21.07.2012  The International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT), the so called Physics World Cup, opened in Bad Saulgau on Saturday morning. It is taking place under the auspices of the German Physics Society (DPG), Bad Honnef and is being organized by the Student Research Center South Wuerttemberg (SFZ), Bad Saulgau.

About 500 guests were invited, among them the participants from 28 countries and those accompanying the teams, representatives of companies that support the competition financially as well as with material and staff, and  state and local politicians, school directors and many scientists from cooperating universities.

The tournament, in which teams made up of five members compete against each other in 5 rounds or “physics fights”, will last until July 26. The task: presenting and discussing physics research projects which thestudents have solved. The competition takes place in English but native speakers are not necessarily at an advantage. It is the team that presents a convincing solution to the given problem and is able to defend it rhetorically well in English that gets the points. Knowledge of physics, tactical skill, teamwork and rhetoric are the decisive factors in this complex tournament for students between the ages of 16 and 19.

Many companies are already now lamenting the lack of well-trained young talent. This trend will most likely continue in the coming years due to the demographic changes taking place. This is an important reason why many globally operating companies support this tournament. Emphasizing how important education is especially for a country like Germany, Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan said, “Investing in education, science and research is the key to progress and prosperity. Physics plays a central role in this. In order to be successful physics requires cooperation across national borders and subject boundaries. This internationality and the willingness to work together characterize the Physics World Cup in Bad Saulgau. Young people have the opportunity to establish contacts and network among each other and this makes for a very good basis for their future careers in science.”

Also contributing to the ceremonious atmosphere set by the Minister’s speech, were the welcoming speeches of Bad Saulgau’s mayor, Doris Schröter, the head of the local organizing committee, Rudolf Lehn, and the President of the IYPT, Alan Allinson, who also opened the tournament. Physics professor Metin Tolan from the Technical University, Dortmund proved to the audience that physics can also be fun. For years he has been researching the “Physics of James Bond” and, tongue-in-cheek, explores the question of whether the spectacular stunts are possible from a purely scientific point of view.

Germany has been taking part in the tournament, whose venue changes every year, since 1995 and always with representatives from the Student Research Center (SFZ) which was founded in 1999 after the German team had won the gold medal for the third time. Rudolf Lehn, the head of the SFZ  was always there. He says, “The IYPT is an extraordinary competition with extraordinary challenges. I know of no other student competition in science and technology that so comprehensively fosters the subject and communicative skills. The young people active in the IYPT are network savvy, possess argumentative skills and are able to think on their feet. They also excel in giving presentations and can deal with conflict. These young problem solvers from around the world are meeting here at the IYPT to compete against each other in a scientific and friendly atmosphere.”

The organizers are expecting costs to exceed € 400,000 raised solely through contributions from companies, foundations, local and regional public institutions as well as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The participants of this year’s German team come from three Länder: Clemens Borys, 19, and Paul Hege, 16 from Kassel in Hesse, Lars Dehlwes, 16,from Erlangen in Bavaria, Tobias Schemmelmann, 18, from Lörrach and Captain Michael Kern, 17, from Biberach all in Baden Wuerttemberg.

The team competition was conceived in 1979 at the State University of Moscow which was sole organizer until 1993. A German team participated for the first time in 1995 in Poland and won the first prize. After the German team won the tournament again in 1999 the idea of founding a student research center took shape.

The German Team:

Michael Kern (Captain), 17 Jahre, Biberach Wieland Gymnasium Biberach Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg( SFZ®), Ulm

Paul Hege, 16 Jahre, Kassel Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Clemens Borys, 19 Jahre, Vellmar Friedrichsgymnasium Kassel Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Tobias Schemmelmann, 18 Jahre, Lörrach Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium Lörrach phænovum Schülerforschungszentrum Lörrach-Dreiländereck

Lars Dehlwes, 16 Jahre, Erlangen Ohm-Gymnasium Erlangen, Erlanger Schülerforschungszentrum (ESFZ)

Contact:
Bettina Zeiß
Rombach & Jacobi Kommunikation
E-Mail: zeiss@rombach-jacobi.de
Handy: 0171 9320775
Weitere Informationen:
http://iypt.de
www.facebook.com/iypt2012
www.sfz-bw.de

28 nations fight in Bad Saulgau

Minister Schavan visits the opening ceremony

The German Team (f.l.t.r: Captain Michael Kern, Tobias Schemmelmann, Lars Dehlwes, Clemens Borys, Paul Hege)

Yulya Peregud is drawing the fight number for belarus.

Overview for Round: 1

Thomas came all the way from Frankfurt to help us over the weekend – preparations for tomorrow are already done.

Here is the schedule, based on the drawing of lots and here we have the Jury Schedule.

http://iypt.de/?p=1703 Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Find us on facebook for more photos!

Here’s some photos of all these brave mascots

Leave a comment if your team has a mascot too!

Next time i’ll write it will be from Bad Saulgau. See you there!

Everything and everyone is packed

Tournament with students from 28 countries begins on July 20

Can you swim in a basin with air bubbles? Where do the light patterns come from that often form on the bottom of a swimming pool? Those who know the answer will not automatically win the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT), the so called Physics World Cup which takes place in the Upper Swabian town of Bad Saulgau from 20-29 July. Only the team that is able to convincingly present the solution in English in front of the international competition as well as an international jury has a chance to win the most prestigious physics competition for students.

This year the Physics World Cup will take place in the Upper Swabian town of Bad Saulgau after well known venues such as Tehran (2011), Vienna (2010), Seoul (2007) or Brisbane (2004). This year’s organizer, the Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg (SFZ) (Student Research Center of South Wuerttemberg) was chosen last year to host the event and has consistently sent the most participants over the years. Germany is the most successful country winning seven gold and eight silver medals in 18 tournaments. The Physics World Cup is under the auspices of the German Physics Society (DPG). Annete Schavan, Federal Ministerhysics of Education and Research, will be among the Speakers.

Everyday questions  -  complex answers

Why is it softer to walk on dry sand than on wet sand? How can a mirage be created in the laboratory? Questions that not even an experienced professor might be able to answer offhand. They are part of the 17 research tasks that are published every autumn and have to be solved by the time the competition takes place in July of the following year. The 16 – 20 year-old students are allowed to use whatever resources they can think of: literature, internet, or experts at universities and industry. During the fights they have to defend their tasks in a rhetorical competition in English against their opponents. This year teams from 28 countries are competing, among them China, Australia, Singapore, Iran, France and Austria.

Numerous companies support the tournament

The organizers are expecting costs to be 400,000 Euros which will be raised solely through contributions from companies and foundations. Many small local companies have agreed to give their support as have global market leaders such as the medical technology firm of Aesculap in Tuttlingen and the construction machine manufacturer Liebherr. Foundations such as the Robert Bosch Foundation or the Dieter Schwarz Foundation in Neckarsulm are also supporting the tournament financially and with specialists from their organizations. They are responsible for financial matters, sponsoring and project controlling as well as arrangements for rooms and catering.

The city of Bad Saulgau is contributing to the event by providing staff and rooms. The opening and closing ceremonies will take place in the Stadtforum, the municipal auditorium.

Wolfgang Hatz, Chairman of Research and Development at Porsche didn’t need a lot of convincing and sees a great benefit to his company. “German industrial companies only have a chance in tough global competition if they produce high quality, innovative cutting-edge-technology and fascinating products. In order to reach these challenging goals we need young people who are curious, enjoy questions posed by technology,and are prepared to work persistently on finding solutions. That is why it is very important to us to support the hosting of the International Physics Tournament 2012, ” says Hatz.

German participants come from Bavaria, Hesse and Baden- Wuerttemberg

Starting for Germany are Clemens Borys, 19, and Paul Hege, 16, both from Kassel, Lars Dehlwes, 17, from Erlangen, Tobias Schemmelmann, 18, from Lörrach, and captain of the team Michael Kern, 17, from Biberach. “Naturally it would be great to stand on the podium in your own country, but we would mainly like to be good hosts, because most of the participants have never been in Germany,” says Rudolf Lehn, Head of the Organizing Committee and Head of the SFZ.

The team competition was conceived by the State University of Moscow in 1979. Until 1993 Moscow University was also the sole organizer. In 1994 the IYPT took place in a western country for the first time – in the Netherlands. A German team participated for the first time in 1995 in Poland and won first place. After the German team won again in 1999 the idea to found a student research center began to take shape.

The German Team

Michael Kern (Captain), 17, Biberach
Wieland Gymnasium Biberach, Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg (SFZ), Ulm

Paul Hege, 16, Kassel
Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel, Schülerforschumgszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Clemens Borys, 19, Vellmar
Friedrichsgymnasium Kassel, Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen (SFN Kassel)

Tobias Schemmelmann, 18, Lörrach
Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium Lörrach, phaenovum Schülerforschungszentrum Lörrach-Dreiländereck

Lars Dehlwes, 16, Erlangen
Ohm-Gymnasium Erlangen, Erlanger Schülerforschungszentrum (ESFZ)

from left to right: Michael Kern, Tobias Schemmelmann, Clemens Borys, Paul Hege, Lars Dehlwes.
Quelle: Aesculap AG

About the Schülerforschungszentrum Südwürttemberg (SFZ) (Student Research Center, South Württemberg)

The Schülerforschungszenbtrum Südwürttemberg in Bad Saulgau was founded in 1999 after a German team consisting of students from the region of Upper Swabia had won the most important physics competition for students, the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) for the second time. Since then it has been promoting and supporting talented young scientists and by doing so would like to counteract the shortage of technical experts. In the meantime further research centers have been created in Tuttlingen, Ulm and Friedrichshafen/Überlingen.

The SFZ is a forge for young talent, an idea workshop, a research laboratory, a knowledge center, a center for gifted students – and a social meeting place. Several hundred students of different ages and from different areas of Baden-Wuerttemberg come regularly to Bad Saulgau or one of the other locations to do independent research, without restrictive guidelines and without a schedule. What they have to bring along is curiosity, stamina, willingness to work on a team and to take part in competitions. They learn to work independently, to research complex questions together with others without knowing beforehand whether or a solution exists. They also learn how to do research as well as  acquiring techniques and skills they will need later in their studies or professional lives.

At the SFZ the students’ performance is of the highest level. And yet the Schülerforschungszentrum is not an exclusive institute for the gifted. Although the pupils should be prepared to work hard, be curious and have a good knowledge of mathematics, it is just as important to be willing to work on a team. Social skills are fostered in such an atmosphere. In addition to physics projects, there are also projects in the fields of mathematics, information technology, chemistry, biology, earth sciences and technology. Physics workshops are also offered to primary school students.

Interested and motivated students from the middle and upper divisions of Gymnasiums (college preparatory schools) have the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the sciences or prepare themselves for competitions. Students decide for themselves how often they come to the SFZ because they work not only at the SFZ but also at home and at their schools. The SFZ is supported by the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the city of Bad Saulgau, Sigmaringen County, by foundations, companies and private donors.

www.sfz-bw.de
www.facebook/sfzbw

They look like this one from 2012′s set:
“A long string of beads is released from a beaker by pulling a sufficiently long part of the chain over the edge of the beaker. Due to gravity the speed of the string increases. At a certain moment the string no longer touches the edge of the beaker. Investigate and explain the phenomenon.”

As a participant you might be fascinated by some of them, irritated by others and some will definitely lead to long weekends and a bit of frustration. But have you ever thought about where these problems come from?
Is there a holy book of problems (*) where we can look for them? Is there a large committee of experts spending weeks doing experiments to come up with new things to investigate?

Well, it’s a bit of both actually. Each year the members of the international organizing committee (IOC) are asked to submit ideas for problems. At the IOC meeting, which takes place during or past each year’s IYPT, there’s a discussion on the problems to select for next year and eventually a decision. Sometimes this takes long, other times it takes very long to reach a conclusion. To make sure that we have new high quality problems, even after all these years, last year we decided to introduce a new process:
A pre-selection committee was formed to improve our selection process and we opened the submission of ideas to everyone using a submission form on our website . Details of the new process are documented in the EC minutes from last October.

The committee did some impressive work: The report Ilya has submitted to the IOC is 60 pages and they worked through 89 proposals from 18 countries.
So, what was their selection based on? What makes a good set of problems? The report sums it up as follows:

1. No repeated, dangerous, trivial or solved problems.
2. Relevance, consistency, feasibility from the IYPT perspective, and reasonable novelty.
3. Balanced coverage of various areas of physics.

If you’re interested in some background material for this year’s problems, go check out the kit.

As every year, I’m excited to see what the 17 problems for the next year will be. Why 17 you might still ask yourself: An experienced IOC member once explained it to us in the following way: “Well,… You see, 16 would be too few, but 18 would be too many.”

(*) Some former problems have been inspired by a book that comes quite close to this notion – The Flying Circus of Physics.

New Zealand in the finals of IYPT 2010

2009:

2010:

2011:

PS: You can now link to this blog using http://blog.iypt.de
PPS: Comments are now enabled also for the older postings!

The diagram, like this description taken from Ilya’s archive, shows the distribution parameters (population mean and standard deviation) for grades of individual jurors at the 23rd IYPT (2010.) The grades are averaged across all stages, performances, and PFs. The data clearly reveals that the individual grading standards vary among jurors, and result in a marked spectrum of average grades in the range from ca. 6 to ca. 8. The relative standard deviations, not shown here, vary in the range from ca. 0.1 to ca. 0.3. The marks above 8—9 and below 5—6 are statistically rare events.

The perfect 5.5-mean.

One of the SG’s goals is to make it harder for jurors to just give a 7 all the time. Besides being a nice prime number, 7 also is a mark weak teams are happy about and strong teams aren’t too sad about (well, as long as it’s not the finals). Clearly this is not what we want for a tournament. Ideally the overall mean grade in a tournament is somewhere close to 5.5 with all the grades used – e.g. with a reasonable standard deviation. With jurors only giving marks from 6 to 8, we effectively narrow the results so much, that eventually randomness and rounding effects become much to influential. The SG certainly help to avoid this, with results from our national YPT in Austria showing that the standard deviation has improved a lot in the past two years and most of the jurors giving grades as low as 1 and as high as 10 over the course of the tournament.

update: a few more words from Ilya :

[01:14:06] Martchenko, Ilya: http://iypt.de/?p=1222
[01:14:59] Martchenko, Ilya: if you want to be completely open, you can also write 
that it's *very* important to have all jurors staying centered around one, uniform grade
[01:15:06] Martchenko, Ilya: i.e. 5
[01:16:11] Martchenko, Ilya: if it's not happening, we may easily have (and always had) the following situation:
[01:16:33] Timotheus Hell: c'mon, i posted this like 5min ago. How can you be that fast?!  
[01:17:02] Martchenko, Ilya: in the fight room A by a pure coincidence we have those jurors 
who put slighly higher grades (right leg of the spectrum) than in the fight room B
[01:17:17] Martchenko, Ilya: ** c'mon, it's by job to monitor mass media  

Now of course this wasn’t something that the Executive Committee came up with during one of their short meetings. It really was a long process that eventually led us to what I consider a very reasonable and helpful guideline for both new and experienced jurors. As the minutes of the EC meeting back in November 2010 state, “[a]fter discussing many alternatives, MP, TH and JB each volunteered to prepare a proposal for updated guidelines which will be circulated among EC members for a final decision during spring 2011.” My first proposal that I was willing to send around to some of my IYPT-friends dates back to December 2010. It’s interesting how this evolved with all the feedback I got, until eventually sending a version 4 to the EC mailing list in February 2011. Other proposals were submitted too and a long discussion via email followed with a stable result evolving sometime in April 2011. Eventually we voted on a proposal and decided to try it at some national YPTs first. Since the feedback there was mostly positive we went ahead and introduced them at the IYPT2011.

Something as complex as these guidelines will never be perfect. I’m sure the EC will continue to listen to any feedback and that the guidelines will continue to evolve. Much more important than the final details however is, that there are guidelines at all: To me it’s important to have rules that clearly state what this tournament is about – that’s what’s reflected in these guidelines: Physics and communicating Physics. And to make the grading even more transparent for the participants, the grading sheets with their partial grades will be scanned and published.

Next time I’ll write something about the grading and how it has changed over the years.

Personally I think it’s just amazing with how much dedication and how successfully Ilya has been working on collecting and archiving all of this IYPT-related information. If there is any (new) fact about one of the (old) IYPTs you can share: Ilya will participate at this year’s IYPT as a Juror and I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to collect any new information or material, like documents, photos or videos from you!

To make sure you know whom to approach, here’s a video I took back in 2011 when the archive was officially launched at the 13th AYPT:

Other numbers never change – we’ll have 17 Problems and Teams of 5 students. Some numbers change slowly: It’s the 25th IYPT already. To celebrate, we’re looking forward to welcoming Evgeny Yunosov, the “father” of the IYPT who was the organizer, main activist and supporter of this new type of competition.

So far it’s all looking good, we’re continuing to make some final design tweaks and the software was successfully tested at our local YPT.

If you’re a participant the main advantage is that you’ll be provided with more detailed fight results than ever before and faster than ever before.

Tim at the IYPT in Iran

I’ve been blogging about the past two IYPTs and this year I was asked to do the same here So during the tournament you will find the latest news like results, previews etc here.

Make sure to also visit the iypt 2012 facebook page at facebook.com/iypt2012.

Source:  Website Thomas Bareiß (Member of the Bundestag), January 20, 2012.

LTR Felix Engelmann, Björn Miksch, Simeon Völkel, Annette Schavan

Picture: SFZ