Welcome to the KTH IPT website!

What is the IPT?

The IPT is an international university-level tournament for bachelor’s and master’s students with an interest in physics! It was started in 2009, and today teams from over 20 countries participate each year. Unlike the math or physics olympiads you may know about, the IPT is a team effort where you and your teammates collaborate for over six months. You combine theoretical and experimental physics to solve open research-oriented physics problems, culminating with a one-week tournament where all teams gather and present their solutions. This year, the IPT is hosted by Poland in Warzaw. During most of the IPT, however, you will be working on problems at KTH. This helps you improve skills such as experimental physics, analytical ability, collaboration and understanding of physics research in general. And of course, you get to know people with a similar interest in physics! Each year 17 problems are announced on the IPT website: https://iptnet.info/ Here you can also find some more useful in-depth information about the IPT. Working on IPT problems is an interesting experience because they are open, and generally impossible to solve completely or even partially. One often needs to combine many strategies such as:

• Experimental work

• Building experiments

• Mathematical modelling

• Numerical simulations

• Machine learning

Our goal is of course to solve as many problems as possible. As a participant, you will be in a team of 2-3 people working on any given problem. Often you need to work on more than one problem. The IPT is also offered as a 7.5 hp course (SA1005).

How do I join?

In case you think any of this sounds interesting, you can show your interest by filling this google forms. You will then be invited to an information meeting were we will describe the process in more depth. A preliminary date for the information meeting is in the first week of September.