The University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI) students delivered outstanding results in the annual University Physics Competition (UPC), according to the official results announced by the organizer recently. Sophomore Yigao Fang and Siyi Chen, teamed with sophomore Qi Shen from School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering of SJTU, grabbed a gold medal out of the competition with 305 teams from worldwide universities. Three other JI teams also claimed two silver medals and one bronze medal.
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, contestants are required to solve one of the two problems including Problem A: Protecting Travelers to Mars and Problem B: Design a Roller Coaster.
Roller coaster design of SJTU gold medal team
The SJTU gold medal team chose Problem B and submitted a paper with a solution displaying creative design of roller coaster model and strong analysis making best use of physical theories. Their paper won unanimous support of judging panelists and the highest rank.
A total of 305 teams attended this year’s competition, turning out 5 gold medal papers, 60 silver and 83 bronze. SJTU teams led by JI students started to participate the annual event from 2012 claiming a gold medal in the first year. With a second gold medal won this year, SJTU enters the UPC hall of fame. JI students have maintained strong performance over the past years, winning a total of two gold medals, four silver medals and 16 bronze medals for the university, said Associate Professor Mateusz Krzyzosiak who is also supervisor of JI teams for the international competition.
Winner list of the 2019 UPC
Gold Medal
Yigao Fang、Siyi Chen、Qi Shen
Silver Medal
Juechu Dong, Haoyang Zhang, Yanjun Chen
Xingjian Zhang, Shijie Zhong, Zhehao Yu
Bronze Medal
Hanyu Wang, Yulong Dong, Taeyon Kim
