Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
Jan 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000phyed..35....4.&link_type=abstract
Physics Education, Volume 35, Issue 1, pp. 4 (2000).
Physics
Physics Education
Scientific paper
Leicester University will host the 65 international teams of students who will assemble in July for this year's International Physics Olympiad . The last time the Olympiad came to the UK was in 1986 in London, and it was the notable enthusiasm of the Leicester Physics and Astronomy department which persuaded the Olympiad Committee to give them the chance of organizing the prestigious event.
The students taking part from all over the world are studying physics at A-level or an equivalent standard and they will take part in an intellectual marathon of theoretical and practical examinations. Each national team comprises five students selected from three rounds of competition and the teams will receive an official welcome from the city, as well as opportunities to visit some of the important educational and cultural centres of the surrounding region. The finalists will also be able to test their skills and initiative at the Challenger Learning Centre, which forms part of Leicester's new National Space Science Centre. Specific information on the event can be found on the Olympiad-2000 website at www.star.le.ac.uk/IphO-2000 .
The Rudolf Ortvay problem solving contest in physics, which takes place in November, is a tradition of Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary. The competition was first opened to international participants in 1998, enabling students from universities around the world to show their knowledge, ingenuity, problem-solving skills and physical insight into problems that are far beyond routine level. The problems (30 - 35 each year) are chosen from different branches of theoretical as well as applied physics. They have varying levels of difficulty, and every contestant can send solutions for ten problems. The focus is not on school-level problem-solving routines but rather on the `physical' way of thinking, recognition of the heart of the problem and an appropriate choice of mathematics. The majority of the assigned problems are original, few having been published previously. Any kind of reference may be consulted; textbooks and journal articles can be cited. The problems can be downloaded from the webpage of the Ortvay contest (mafihe.elte.hu/ortvay ) in Hungarian and English; on preliminary request the problems can be sent via e-mail.
If an institute is represented by several contestants, then a teacher or student acting as local organizer collects the solutions and posts them to the referees. Solutions can be sent by mail, fax or e-mail to the address given on the webpage. The contest is evaluated separately for each university year and the referees reserve the right to withhold or to divide some prizes. Beyond the money prizes for the first, second and third places, honourable mentions and special prizes for outstanding solutions of individual problems can be awarded. The sponsors of the contest are the Students' Foundation of the Faculty of Sciences of Eötvös University and the Roland Eötvös Physical Society. The results are announced in December and the organizers are hoping for even more participants in future contests.
Among the winners of the European Union Young Scientists competition which took place in Thessaloniki, Greece in September was Sarah Flannery from Ireland. Sarah had used advanced mathematics to compare two cryptographic systems and proved that a new system for encrypting information on the Internet is as secure and considerably faster than the one currently in use. Three students from Iceland also gained a prize for their work on a distant cluster of hundreds of galaxies, demonstrating the capacities of modern data processing tools and the Internet in the project. The winning entries were selected from 57 projects presented from over 30 countries, and the aim of the contest was to encourage and highlight young people's interest in science by inviting them to play a part in actual research projects. Some of the winners will be able to work on projects at the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, the European Northern Observatories in the Canary Islands and the Royal Geographic Society in the Seychelles.
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