US Invitational Young Physicists Tournament 2020 Results

What a weekend.  The thirteenth US Invitational YPT was held last weekend, Feb. 8-9, at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.  Fourteen teams, representing four countries and six US states, made plans to attend; due to the coronovirus, the three teams from China could not attend.  

A Young Physicists Tournament consists of "physics fights," simulations of scientific conference peer review. In preparation, all the teams solve the four problems listed here.  In each round, one team presents their work on a problem.  Questions are then asked not by judges, but by another team.  A jury evaluates both teams based on their ability to carry on a conversation about the problem which demonstrates their deep physics knowledge.

The first day consisted of five rounds of physics fights, followed by the keynote address.  There, tournament director Tengiz Bibilashvili of the University of California Santa Barbara described his personal journey through 24 years of YPTs - from his university days in Soviet Moscow, to leading Georgia to an international championship in 1993, to founding the US Association for Young Physicists Tournaments in the mid-2000s.  Tengiz concluded his talk by awarding his namesake Bibilashvili Medal to his former students in the Sambelashvili family, members of which were serving as jurors this year.

On Sunday midday, finalists were announced: The Nueva School of San Mateo, CA earned the top seed.  

Final results:

2020 USIYPT champion: Cary Academy (NC)

Second place: The Nueva School (CA)

Finalists: 

• Phillips Exeter Academy (NH)
• Rye Country Day School (NY)
• Phillips Andover Academy (MA)
• Woodberry Forest School (VA)

Clifford Swartz Trophy (poster session champions): The Harker School (CA)

Fifth Place with Bibilashvili Medal: Pioneer School of Ariana (Tunisia)

Fifth Place:

• Deep Run High School (VA)
• Episcopal High School (VA)
• UG School (Georgia)

Teams from China who planned to attend but could not (and we missed them):

• Shenzhen Middle School
• Qingdao No. 2 High School
• Vanke Meisha Academy

At the Sunday night pizza party, the teams each gave Captains' Awards for best poster, best report, and best questioning.  Later on in the evening students from multiple teams packed into hotel rooms to watch movies.  One coach pointed out that Sunday night was when the stories were shared between teams of last-minute experiments, of confidence and trepidation, of the beautiful struggle that is scientific research - a struggle we all took part in.

The 2021 tournament will be hosted jointly by The Science House at North Carolina State University, and Cary Academy.  It will be held January 30-31, 2021.  If you'd like to participate - either as a juror or by bringing a team - please contact Greg through a comment or through email. 

Historical participants may be found through this link.