A team of three undergraduate students won the gold medal in the fifth annual University Physics Competition earlier this month. This team was made up of Li Bikun, Yang Zichao, Yi Yuan from department of physics and was instructed by Yang Jun from Physics Teaching Laboratory. And the other two teams were ranked as Accomplished Competitors.The University Physics Competition is an international contest for undergraduate students, who work in teams of three at their home colleges and universities all over the world, and spend a weekend in November, 48 hours, analyzing a real-world scenario using the principles of physics, and writing a formal paper describing their work. 

       This year’s competition presented two problems for students to solve and 131 teams from high-ranking universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Duke University, National University of Singapore, Peking University, and Nanjing University participated in the event.  93 teams selected “Problem A – Circumbinary Planets” and 38 teams selected “Problem B – A Water Fountain.”

       Of the 131 paper submitted in the 2014 University Physics Competition, 2 teams (1.5%) were ranked as Gold Medal Winners, 23 teams (18%) were ranked as Silver Medal Winners, 36 teams (27%) were ranked as Bronze Medal Winners, and 70 teams (53%) were ranked as Accomplished Competitors.

       The University Physics Competition has received official sponsorship from both the American Physical Society and American Astronomical Society, which will be providing prizes for the gold medal winning teams.