Students from all over the country take part in physics tournament at IMPA Tech

O 8th Brazilian Physicists’ Tournament (BPT)The event, held at IMPA Tech between December 8 and 10, brought together undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the country and became the biggest edition of the university physics competition, which has been held annually since 2017. The tournament, which promotes discussions of real and innovative problems in the discipline, took place in Rio de Janeiro for the first time and consecrated the group from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) as the 2025 national champions.

This year, seven teams are taking part in the “Physics Fights”, rounds of problem presentations. Students Anderson Aquiles, Felipe Giehl, Lucas Paulo Gonçalves and Suelen Veiga represented the Bachelor of Mathematics in Technology and Innovation in the “UFRJ – IMPA Tech” group, alongside students from the Physics Institute of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). The union of students from the different institutions came about naturally due to the partnership between IMPA Tech and the IF-UFRJ, which promotes an academic exchange of researchers to teach at Porto Maravalley.

IMPA Tech professor Cláudio Lenz was part of the organization of BPT-2025, which brought together – in addition to the participating universities – research institutions from Rio to evaluate the presentations. “It was the biggest edition to date. We had a record number of participants and the IMPA Tech students really enjoyed the experience,” he said.

The event marked some of the youngsters’ first participation in national tournaments. “It was an incredible experience of a lot of learning and fun,” said Suelen, who combined her preparation for the competition with her undergraduate classes. “As a group, we carried out some of the requested experiments and practiced the presentations. I think we performed well, especially considering that it was a new experience for most of us,” she added.

The teams must present original and innovative ideas, with experimental and theoretical results. Among the topics covered are everyday problems, such as the tin telephone game, the physical investigation of the holes that form in the surface of rice during cooking, and the lifespan of the foam formed when pouring beer into a glass, for example. “These are interdisciplinary and unusual problems that involve mathematics, computing and everyday issues. They’re not traditional textbook problems and they don’t have closed solutions, so each group proposes its own alternatives. This culture of tackling real problems and not just theory is what is lacking in education and science in Brazil,” said Professor Lenz.

In addition to the groups from UFMG and “UFRJ – IMPA Tech”, students from USP (University of São Paulo), Unicamp (State University of Campinas), UPE (University of Pernambuco), UFABC (Federal University of ABC) and UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) are taking part in BPT-2025 in the classrooms of IMPA Tech, in the port area of Rio de Janeiro. Each team is made up of three to six students.

BPT-2025 also promoted networking between the participating institutions. “It’s an extremely rich experience. We exchange information about tools, research topics and the students make connections at different universities across the country,” said Lenz. For student Lucas Paulo, the meetings enable scientific collaboration, which he considers fundamental nowadays. “Without scientific collaboration, even if important specific advances can still be made, we don’t optimize the use of our resources and, in general, we can’t think about other people’s realities,” he said.

The winning group from BTP-2025 has already qualified for the IPT 2026 (International Physicists’ Tournament), the global phase of the academic competition, which will take place between May 26 and 30, 2026, at Oklahoma State University in the USA.

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