Successful participation in the international PLANCKS competition
The best physics students from all over the world met on 3 May at the UAB Faculty of Science to participate in the final of the PLANCKS competition, the most important event of its kind ever held in Spain. The UAB team finished the competition in 28th position.
The best physics students from around the world met on Saturday 3 May at the UAB to participate in the final of the PLANCKS competition, the most prestigious international physics competition. Each year, countries from all over the world choose their best undergraduate and master's students in physics, who compete in the grand final. The event is organised by the Student Group of the Spanish Royal Society of Physics (GdeE-RSEF).
This year, the meeting was held in Barcelona and brought together 200 students from teams from 30 different countries. Of the 140 teams from Spain that participated in the preliminary tests, five of them made it to the finals: “PSIsicos”, from the University of Valladolid, which ranked 15th; “Plonck”, from the Autonomous University of Madrid, ranking 20th; “Wavefunction Warriors”, from the University of Barcelona, ranking 26th; “Oppenhomies Beta+”, from the UAB, ranking 28th; and “Txistorra”, from the University of the Basque Country, ranking 30th.
The members of the UAB team, Cristina Camacho, Martin González, Eric Lizalde and Martí Solà, commented that “the best part of the PLANCKS competition is the fact of being able to get together with people who share the same curiosity for physics and the desire to face challenges and solve difficult problems”. The team, formed by 5th year students of the double degree in Physics + Mathematics, is “very happy and grateful to the organisers for the opportunity to attend the PLANCKS final”, a milestone they prepared for by using “the few free moments we have between the end-of-degree projects and work to meet and practice exams from previous years”, they said.
The meeting was organised in collaboration with the UPC and the University of Barcelona and included visits to leading scientific centres, such as the Alba synchrotron and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, as well as round tables and talks with physics personalities from around the world such as Anne L'Huillier, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023; Professor Alicia Sintes of the University of the Balearic Islands; and Barbara Buades, PhD at the Institute of Photonic Sciences and CEO of the company Meetoptics.