Meet the winners of the 2013 International Physicists Tournament

The International Physicists’ Tournament (IPT) began in Ukraine in 2009 but has since spread internationally. Teams are formed by six Masters-level students who represent their respective countries. Each team receives a set of physics problems in advance, and then pits its solutions against those of the other teams during “Physics Fights” in a mixed round-robbin and play-off competition that constitutes the actual tournament. Every team is evaluated by an international jury of professional physicists on the basis of the solutions presented and of the arguments used to criticize the competing team’s explanations.

The 2013 EPFL team, known as 'Snow White and the six Physicists', was composed of Csaba Forro (captain), Adrien Bolens, Thibaud Humair, Xavier Mettan, William Moreno and Gaëtan Wuilloud. Preparation for the tournament was no small task. The team formed in December 2012, but because of their studies, the real work started at the end of February 2013, giving them a mere five weeks to solve the problems.

“The first step in solving those problems was to just read them and think about them – in the shower, everywhere!” says Humair. “They are everyday life problems, and when you read them at first, they seem a bit weird. Then you begin to think ‘how can I set up an experiment, how can solve this?’, and that takes a long time – it’s not something you can do in a couple of days.”

Setting up the experimental work was challenging, but the team received full support from the technical staff, fully backed by SB professors. “At least half the work was done two weeks before the tournament”, Humair continues. “Taking for example one particular problem, ‘the Spectral Cola’, first we had to find people who had spectroscopes and other equipment that we needed in order to carry out the experiments. We also had to contact technicians who could help us set them up. All this took time.” This is no understatement, as the team had to spend over ten hours in a lab with a chemist performing spectroscopy.

But the hard work paid off. Despite the difficulties of setting up labs and experiments, the team recognizes that the support they received had a direct impact on the quality of their presented solutions and their performance during the tournament. They are also thankful for the support they received during the tournament itself. “We were really fortunate with the staff; they were excellent, very hospitable and helpful”, says Forro. “The organizing committee was amazing”, adds Humair. “They really enabled the teams to focus exclusively on the tournament.”

And how did the tournament compare to their studies at EPFL? “It was completely different”, says Humair. “First of all, these aren’t pre-solved problems. In the Master’s program we start solving problems and then get a lot of help from our supervisors. But here we were on our own, and it was a great experience to really solve physics problems entirely by ourselves.” The team describes the experience as a thrill, akin to charting new territory. As Csaba Forro says: “The pleasure of being totally lost at the beginning and then eventually coming to a solution! It was the first time we experienced that.”

A great advantage was the actual composition of the team. Faced with different problems to solve, it was inevitable that they had to utilize a wide spectrum of strengths. And although the actual physics needed to approach the problems was relatively simple, constructing the actual solutions drew skills from across the entire team. “Some of us are more theoretical while others were contributing their experimental know-how”, says Forro. “But all complemented each other and constituted the overall strength of the team. There was use of photography, numerical computations, the use of LaTeX… but across the team, we had all the skills we needed.”

Having the skills to compete in the tournament is something the team attributes to their studies at EPFL. “The second-year course on fluids and plastic deformation was helpful because this was a recurring theme in the IPT problems”, says Forro. “But I think, having to write reports for the experimental physics classes prepared us most to make our ideas come across in 10 min. And we learned how to design and control our experiments, and how to ensure the quality of our data.”

Competing in the tournament itself was a tremendous learning experience for the team. Some of the solutions from the other teams surprised them, because they used diametrically different approaches. However, each team seemed to have one strong solution and one major weakness. The strongest solution for the EPFL team was the stalactite question (‘Anomalous winter’), and they found the ‘Hexagonal honey’ problem to be the most challenging – a difficulty shared by all teams, as everyone seemed to bring extremely different approaches to it.

The team’s most memorable engagement was going up against the Russian team, who they describe as impressive, fair and concentrated. But the hardest part was answering the jury questioning. “These are highly-experienced physicists who were able to immediately understand and evaluate the teams’ approaches to solutions”, the team members remark. “This was not always the case for the opponent teams.”

With their experience, 'Snow White and the six Physicists' are keen to offer advice to future competitors. Starting early and seeking help from SB professors as soon as possible are top in their list of counsel. “People [at SB] are very open and they will never turn you away if you approach them for help”, they say characteristically. They also advise future teams to avoid opposing problems they have not solved, and to attempt solving all the problems, as this will result in better scores.

As for the actual tournament format, they would like to see a different method of bracketing teams. “Currently there is much overlap and you might not be exposed to all the other teams’ solutions to the problems”, says Forro. “It should be possible to have a rotation where every team competes against each of the other teams. With the current format, we participated twice against the same teams (French and Polish).”

And what of the future? Even though they would like to participate in the 2014 IPT, most members of this year’s team consider it unlikely. All are expecting to be in exchange programs and busy with their studies – but the tournament experience is still tempting. “I didn’t expect it to be so rewarding”, says Humair. “It’s really amazing and intense.” However, academic endeavors are not the only thing keeping them from competing next year. As team captain Forro says with a smile: “We already won one tournament. Maybe it’s good to stop here”.