UAB students awarded 14 medals at the University Physics Competition
27/02/2018
The results of the international University Physics Competition were made public on 17 January. The event was held in November 2016 and included a total of 261 three-person teams, each formed by students of physics from around the world.
This year, a total of 57 students from the bachelor's degree in Physics, organised into 19 groups, participated in the competition. One of the groups was awarded a gold medal of the four gold medals available, six groups were awarded silver medals out of a total of 48, and seven groups were awarded bronze medals, out of 71. These results are in addition to the medals already achieved in the previous edition, in which six groups from the UAB participated and two won gold medals and three won silver.
As happens each year, the competition organisers pose two questions for participants. This year, the first question consisted in making the necessary calculations to make a rocket reach Mars with the use of a solar sail. The second consisted in studying the viability of using a magnetic field to redirect residual ions from an electrostatic ion thruster, a type of propulsion used with some spacecrafts. Students had to solve one of the two problems and send an email with the solution in the format of a scientific paper within 48 hours.
One of the three gold medals awarded for the best solutions to problem number one went to the team formed by Marco Praderio, Maria dels Àngels Guinovart and Eneko Martin. The five teams formed by Elisabet Roda, Laia Weisz and Marta Carrizo; Pablo Benlloch, Pol Julià and Jaime Pedregal; Jordi Ferré, Sergi Andreu and Eduard Calsina; Marina Berbel, Víctor Escolano and Álvaro Moreno; and by Carles Falcó, Adrià Marin and Arnau Mas received five silver medals for the first problem, and Gerard Aquilar, Aitor Gomila and Joan Agustí received a silver medal for the second problem. Bronze medals went to Mario Rodrigo, Raul Morral, Carlos Ruiz, Laia Waffelaert, Jaume Cunill, Marc Serra, Mireia Mauricio, Bernat Bassols, Nil Rodellas, Anicet Tibau, Marc Fuster, Daniel Goncalves, Roger Morales, Mercè Roig, Alba Torras, Bernat Molero, Laia Domingo, Clàudia Serrano, Aleix March, Marc Niedworok and Albert Rico.
The competition, which has been celebrated for eight 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, Canada; the Georgia Institute of Technology; the University of Waterloo, Ontario; the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and Utica College.