Success for team IXI at the GYPT national finals
The team coached by PhotonLab finished second in the German Young Physicists’ Tournament (GYPT).
At the 13th German Young Physicists’ Tournament (GYPT), a 40-member jury selected the twelve best students from a pool of 84 - among them the team coached by PhotonLab. Team member Nikita Petrov also won the first-ever Otmar Winkler Prize for the best opposition. The three students from the Dachau region, assigned to the MPQ regional round, may now be selected for the five-member national team and represent Germany at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) or the European AYPT.
GYPT centres on independent research and debate. Over several weeks or months, teams study a physics problem, present their findings in short talks in English, and discuss them directly with opposing teams. “The competition is highly interactive. Up to 40 per cent of participants are female, and the discussions often go into real depth,” says Silke Stähler-Schöpf, head of the MPQ student laboratory.
Within team IXI, each member tackled a different problem. Nikita Petrov worked on “Electrical Damping”: a magnet on a spring oscillates through a coil. Both mechanical damping and electromagnetic effects play a role. He impressed with his presentation and discussion, winning the Otmar Winkler Prize.
Meanwhile, Ayush Yadav explored “The Singing Ruler”, analysing the sound of a ruler set into vibration by a flick. Mihailo Mascecic built a monochromator using a sugar solution and two polarising filters. Alongside Petrov and Yadav, Philipp Klippel has also made it to the next round. He presented a modified Newton’s cradle in which the spheres are magnets that repel each other.
Preparation at PhotonLab played a key role in the team’s success. “This year went particularly well,” says Stähler-Schöpf. “Our student assistants prepared the team thoroughly, the students invested a great deal of time, and our jury selected the right candidates at the regional round.”
Jonas Hamp, a student assistant at the MPQ laboratory, has been mentoring teams since 2022. “As a former participant and now a mentor, I have been fascinated by the competition for nine years,” he says.
“We are proud that one of our teams has won a silver medal – and we very much hope that some of them will go on to compete at the IYPT,” Stähler-Schöpf adds.
