UAB students receive five medals at the international University Physics Competition
19/01/2017
This week the results of the international University Physics Competition were announced. The competition took place in November, in which 197 teams formed by three undergraduate students from around the world participated.
A total of 18 students (6 groups) from the UAB's Bachelor's Degree in Physics took part in the competition. Two of these groups won gold medals, of the three awarded, while three other groups were awarded silver medals, of the 34 awarded.
The organisation posed two problems, the first related to the viability of sending nuclear plant residues into outer space with two possibilities: sending them to the Sun or sending them into an asteroid belt. The second consisted in developing a model capable of explaining the difference of mass between the largest dinosaurs and the largest mammals which have inhabited Earth. Students had to solve one of the two problems and send an email with the solution within 48 hours.
One of the two gold medals awarded for best solutions to the first problem was won by the team formed by Marc Fuster, David Masip i Marco Praderio; while the only gold medal awarded for the second problem went to the team formed by Daniel Salgado, Marc Rodà i Sergio Hilario Martínez. The three teams formed by Santiago Vallés, Roger Morales and Raúl Morral; Leonardo Gastón, Nicetu Tibau and Bernat Molero; and David Castells, Josep Castell and Marc Borràs received three silver medals for the first problem.
The competition, which has been celebrated for seven years, is sponsored by the American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society and is organised by representatives of Wesleyan College, Georgia; the University of Central Florida; the University of Winnipeg; the Georgia Institute of Technology; the University of Waterloo, Ontario; the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Utica College.
Website of the University Physics Competition
http://www.uphysicsc.com/2016contest.html