ITP Members: Call for Judges, National Youth Physics Competition
A message from IT Professionals member Hazel Jennings:
Physics feeds Tech Talent! Can you help?
As a trustee of the NZ Young Physicists Trust I’m constantly amazed at how many of our alumni end up working in IT. Many of them work with complex modelling and some have founded global IT companies. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Even the 2024 Nobel prize for physics was for a foundation contribution to machine learning.
Link: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/press-release/
Know how many of us in ITP are keen to keep developing NZ’s tech talent, I’m reaching out for some help. Our trust needs judges for this years’ Young Physicists’ tournament on 22nd March in Auckland. And we will need even more in 2026 when we restart the regional rounds of the tournament.
It’s a big ask. Our judges spend all day working with us in return for a fairly modest lunch and the pleasure of watching some of the best young scientists in New Zealand debate their research. If you are interested, please check out our website - https://iypt.org.nz/ . Or you can follow the Trust on LinkedIn. And if after that you are still interested in helping us judge the tournament, please contact me for more details at hazel.jennings@iypt.org.nz.
Hazel Jennings
More on this competition
What is the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament? A physics research, problem solving and debating competition for senior high-school students.
Students spend weeks researching the seven open-ended set problems. They develop theoretical models and predict outcomes. They then test their model experimentally, comparing their predictions and actual results. Ideally, they use this information to refine their work and investigate further.
Just before the tournament, students form teams of three and prepare twelve-minute presentations of their research; their solutions to the set problems. The team pool their data and share their work so that each one of them becomes the team’s ‘expert’ in one or two solutions. They need solutions to at least three problems as each presentation can only be used once in the tournament.
On tournament day, teams compete in three round robin physics matches. Each match is between two teams who challenge each other to present their solution to a specific problem. The experts present and in turn debate the solutions, watched by a panel of judges who award marks against a rubric. Scores are added up at the end of the three rounds with the highest scoring team being crowned national champions.
Can you be one of our judges?
What qualifications do I need to be a judge? You need to be able to follow the science and maths presented, which is usually at undergraduate level. You don’t need to remember this from your own varsity days; many marks are for clarity of explanation! We suggest a good background is
1. A Batchelor’s science, engineering or digital technologies degree, and
2. Work or study that requires experimentation, modelling and problem solving, and importantly
3. Is available 8:30am to 5pm on March 22nd at Auckland Grammar School to judge.
We need at least 20 independent judges so that judging panel of 2 teachers plus 2 independents is assigned to each match. (we expect about 12 matches a round). All meals and refreshments are provided. Uni students judging, often alumni, also get a voucher to cover travel costs. Please volunteer by noon March16th at the latest so we can schedule the draw. Earlier would be even better!
Want to learn more? Please check us out by searching for NZYPT or IYPT. Find us and our alumni stories on LinkedIn. And if you want to help, please sign up here for more information.