36th IYPT Comes To An End

News Desk

Murree: As many as 17 teams from different countries participated in the International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT) and Poland once again won the title. It was held jointly by the Pakistan Young Innovative Mind Society (PYIMS) and Kohsar University, Murree.

Speaking at the event, chief guest Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that it was a good move that PYIMS invited these countries to come to Pakistan. It will project a good and positive image of Pakistan since a negative image is presented by associating terrorism with the country, Dr Ahmad added. He also appreciated the efforts of Kohsar University, Murree, for successfully organizing the tournament.

Physics World Cup

The IYPT, sometimes referred to as the ‘Physics World Cup’, is a scientific competition between teams of secondary school students. It mimics, as close as possible, the real-world scientific research and the process of presenting and defending the results obtained. Participants have almost a year to work on 17 open-ended inquiry problems. A good part of the problems involves easy-to-reproduce phenomena presenting unexpected behaviour.

The concept behind the IYPT originates from the former Soviet Union. After a tournament of that kind was executed there for quite a while the first international IYPT took place in 1988. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the IYPT was carried out in other European countries as well, whereas the number of participating countries grew continuously. In 2004, the IYPT took place outside of Europe for the first time. Venue was Brisbane (Australia).

Meanwhile, the number of participating countries has grown to over 25. In addition, the IYPT has developed from a lose community of idealists into an officially registered corporation.