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Guide to University Physics Competition

Brief of my online tutorial session on University Physics Competition (UPC).
Posted Updated
By Mubtasim Fuad
4 min read
Guide to University Physics Competition

Intro

I conducted an online session (for the undergrads of JU) on the basic guidelines for the University Physics Competition (UPC) on October 31, 2020. Here, I have written up the topics that I discussed in the session. So, if you missed it, you can read through this page to get the gist.

Contest Time: Total 48 hours
Contest Rules: uphysicsc.com/contestrules.html

Solution Paper Format

All teams must prepare a formal paper, written in English, in which they explain their work. The paper must list the team number at the top of each page, but the paper must not contain the names of the students, their institution, or any other identifying information.

The first page of the paper should contain only four items:

  1. the team number,
  2. the problem selected (“A” or “B”),
  3. the title of the paper, and
  4. an abstract/summary.

Every page in the paper should contain the team number and problem number.

The basic/necessary sections of the paper template

  • Abstract*
  • Introduction*
  • Background
  • Mathematical Model
  • The Proposed Model/Method*
  • Result and Discussion*
  • Conclusion*
  • References*

The sections marked by * are almost compulsory parts in any problem. But other sections can be modified, omitted and also additional sections can be added according to the selected problem.

Every team should have a their own template ready before the contest starts. To understand the template properly, the teams should read the contest rules (sections 5-6) and have a look to the formats of the gold medalist papers of previous years.

Team Skills

You always need someone on your team who’s unafraid unhesitating to tell that you’re screwing up.

The skills that every team should have:

  • Physics + Math
  • Googling
  • Scientific Literature
  • Documentation
  • Programming
  • Collaboration

Physics + Math

The knowledge of

  • Classical Mechanics (CM)
  • Classical Electromagnetism (EM/CED)
  • Mathematical Methods for Physics (MMP)

from any standard undergrad textbooks will be helpful to deal with the UPC problems properly.

Googling

The skill of browsing the internet effectively is more important than other skills for this contest.

Click to view some useful sites
  • Google Scholar
  • Sci-Hub
  • Library Genesis

Note: Sci-Hub and Library Genesis provide free access to resources but may violate copyright laws. Consider using legal alternatives, such as open-access repositories or institutional access, when possible.

Scientific Literature

Another necessary team skill is the capability of studying scientific literature. Studying includes searching, reading, understanding, analyzing, explaining, writing.

Documentation

Broadly speaking, there are two types of document preparation tools: (1) WYSIWYG and (2) WYSIWYM.

The teams have to be properly familiar with any one of the typesetting or word processing software to create their solution papers.

  1. WYSIWYG
  2. WYSIWYM

With the documentation system, the integration of a bibliography tool (Zotero / Mendeley) would be great.

The documentation tools don’t have an order of priority for UPC. So, the teams should not be overwhelmed by these tools. In most cases, using new tools can hamper management and decrease team efficiency. Their main target is to write up their solution digitally and convert it into a PDF for submission. So, the suggestion would be to stick to the familiar software with which the teams feel comfortable.

Teams should not forget to rename the PDF file according to their team number and problem number. For example, if the team number is 100 and their selected problem is B, then the PDF file must be renamed as 100B.pdf.

Collaboration

Due to COVID19, the teammates may participate by staying away from each other. In that case, the following tools can be helpful for communication and online collaboration:

More useful tools can be found on the internet.

Closing Remarks

Lastly, it’s obvious that I am not aware of all the useful tools that exist. So every team should explore themselves to find more. But as I suggested before, the new/inexperienced teams should stick to the tools that they are used to.

Best wishes to all the teams for UPC in the upcoming years.

Bonus: JU Physicists’ Conclave and JU Physics Club arranged a webinar titled A Guide to Online International Competitions on August 28, 2020. In that program, a gold-medalist and silver-medalist teams discussed their previous experiences in UPC. It can be helpful and informative for the new participants.

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