The final stage of the International Physicists’ Tournament (IPT), the international experimental physics competition that brings together student teams from all over the world every year, has just concluded. Participants are challenged to tackle around fifteen physics problems and propose solutions through experimental approaches based on simple and cost-effective methods.
The tournament begins at national level, with the aim of selecting the teams that will progress to the international final.
This year, the team from the Politecnico di Milano, comprising students Samuele Comizzoli, Rocco Bonarini, Giulio Farinella, Kevin Sarti, Matteo Radici, Guia Zamboni, Ahmed Negri and Filippo Canino, secured a place in the final held in Oklahoma.
The team was coordinated by researcher Michele Guizzardi, with the support of PhD tutors Micol Bertolotti and Matteo Ghezzi and lecturers Giacomo Ghiringhelli, Claudia Dallera and Marco Moretti.
The competition
The final took place from 26 to 31 May, bringing together in Oklahoma the teams that had qualified from the national selections.
The participating teams were:
- Team Austria – TU Wien;
- Team France – École Polytechnique;
- Team Germany – LMU;
- Team Germany – Berlin + Erlangen;
- Team USA – Arizona;
- Team Poland – Warsaw;
- Team Brazil – Federal University of Minas Gerais;
- Team Colombia – National University of Colombia;
- Team Switzerland – winner of the national selection;
- Team Greece – winner of the national selection;
- Team Denmark – DTU;
- Team India – IIT Madras;
- Team Italy – Politecnico di Milano;
- Team Sweden – Chalmers;
- Team Canada – winner of the national selection;
- Team Croatia – winner of the national selection;
- Team IPT – winner of the national selection;
- Team Ukraine – winner of the national selection;
- Team UK – University of Cambridge;
- Team Oklahoma State University – host of the 2025 edition;
- Team Hungary – winner of the national selection.
In the first stage of the competition, which lasted two days, all teams competed before a jury comprising PhD students, post-docs and university professors.
Only the top nine teams qualified for the semi-finals.
The results
Having secured a place in the semi-finals, the Politecnico team went on to face the teams from France and Croatia, finishing fourth in the final standings.
This is a highly commendable result, achieved just one step away from the podium and the fruit of a year of hard work by all team members, confirming the quality of the scientific preparation and the commitment of the students involved.
The Department of Physics would like to thank everyone who helped make this experience possible.
We look forward to the next edition of the International Physicists’ Tournament, to be held in Milan in 2027.