A bucketful of updates: IPT 2018 success, India joins the band, President confirmed and problems for 2019!

IPT 2018

We are happy to be able to reflect upon another successful edition of the IPT this year. École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne  clinched the victory this edition with École polytechnique in a close second followed by the fiery team of University of ABC in third. The remaining general ranking can be viewed here. We thank all the teams for their incredible enthusiasm, without which the tournament would never be as memorable.

India joins the IOC

The tournament brings not only the opportunity to build upon general skills and physics, but also the opportunity to meet new people from across the world. With this, it was with great pleasure to introduce India as a member of the International Organising Committee (IOC) represented by Suvendu Barik from Shiv Nadar University. The team for the first time participated in the IPT this edition. We wish Suvendu the best of luck and will be helping him expand the tournament in India!

A new IPT president

During IOC meetings at the 2018 edition of the IPT, I (David Collomb) was confirmed as president of the tournament for 2 year term from my acting status, which will overlook the 2019 edition and part of the 2020 edition.

As president I will look to continue the expansion of the IPT in currently participating and new countries. Among other things, I also will seek to establish affiliation of the IPT with a reputed body such as a national physical society which will no doubt help the IPT grow as well as looking to continue the search for more outside support.

I also aim to start a process of confirming IPT hosts within 2 editions in advanced (eg. confirming the host of 2020 between the 2018 and 2019 editions).

This will hopefully increase the time the host institution has to find more funds which could translate into more teams participating (up to 21 for example). Finally, I would also really like to see the tournament hosted outside Europe, aiming for this to happen within the next three editions – I do have a keen eye on Latin America considering their increased participation over last couple of years.

Calls for problems: 2019

This brings us nicely onto our last message. As the 2018 edition has ended, we are now beginning preparation for the 2019 edition. This starts with the collection of problems which as usual we will ask the general public for suggestions, a panel will filter them down, then we will give each nation to vote on which problems will make the final 17. You can view some of the previous problems here if you need inspiration.

Yours,

David Collomb and the rest of the Executive committee