The Inaugural Australian Institute of Physics (WA Branch) Quantum Prize

Open to undergraduate physics students enrolled at a Western Australian University.

Prizes

First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $200

Third Prize: $100

Certificates will also be awarded to winners in all winning positions.

Goals

The goal of the competition in its first year is to create a device that will demonstrate some essential feature of the quantum world to a broad audience.  This goal can interpreted as either demonstrating some element of quantum weirdness (wave-particle duality, entanglement), a demonstration of the quantised nature of the Universe (Brownian motion, Stern-Gerlach effect, energy levels) or some application of nanotechnology that is reliant upon the special features of Quantum Mechanics (quantum dot light emission). The created device can either be a real piece of experimental equipment, or a software demonstration, but bonus marks will be awarded for a physical demonstration as this is closer to the aims of the competition.  A valid entry could also consist of a demonstration of some classical effect that is analogous to a quantum effect, although once again an actual measurement of a quantum effect is to be preferred and will thus attract higher marks.

A rich source of experimental material is to be found in American Journal of Physics back-issues (http://scitation.aip.org/ajp/) or Physics Today articles (http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_62/iss_2/34_1.shtml). Examples of interesting experiments might be observation of Brownian motion, Millikan's oil-drop or the Stern-Gerlach experiment, photo-electric effect, wave-particle duality with a light beam, magnetic flux quantization etc.  In all these cases your entry would be enhanced if you were able to calculate some parameter related to the quantum property.  More outlandish experiments might be aimed at demonstrating quantum entanglement (e.g. http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/).

 

 

Entry: Free

Entrants: Must consist of team of 3 to 6 entrants who are all undergraduates enrolled at a Western Australian University in at least one undergraduate physics unit.

Procedure:  Students must lodge a 1 page Expression of Interest (EoI) by sending an email to aip3comp@physics.uwa.edu.au by 5pm on 20/3/2009.  All successful lodgements will be acknowledged.  The EoI should be in 10 or 12 point font, on A4 paper with 2cm margins all around, with 13 point line-spacing and should be submitted as an Acrobat pdf document attached to the email.

A valid EoI MUST include the following:

(1) A Team Name,

(2) A project title,

(3) one to two paragraphs describing which quantum effect will be demonstrated/simulated,

(4) one to two paragraphs describing how the quantum effect be demonstrated/simulated/explained

(5) Team members (must have 3 to 6 members inclusive).  Each team member should list the one undergraduate unit in which they are enrolled that makes them eligible for the competition (give unit code and University).

(6) One of the team members in the list above should be identified as the corresponding member and this person should supply a valid email address.  All communication between the team and the competition organisers will be through this member.  One other team member should be identified as the treasurer of the team.  This individual is responsible for retaining receipts that relate to the costs of the entry and will be the recipient of any disbursed funds from the competition or the University.  The treasurer will be responsible for distributing these funds among the team members.

Further Rules and Information

(1) For a team to compete it must have submitted a VALID EoI by the deadline.  The outcome of the competition will be solely based on the quality of the final written material and demonstrated project and will not take any account of the quality of the EoI.  If a team wishes to add or remove any of its members after the EoI then it is free to do so up to 15/5/2009 with the consent of the member being removed or added, as well as the consent of the corresponding member and the treasurer of the team. This change needs to be notified by email to aip3comp@physics.uwa.edu.au before 5pm on 5/5/2009. If the team wishes to change the direction of the project from that listed in the EoI then they may also do this and there is no need for notification in this case. The EoI will be kept confidential until after the final project submission.

(2) Groups are encouraged to seek outside advice from wherever they can obtain assistance with this project.

(3) The total cost of the entered project may NOT exceed AU$250 plus $30/team member.  Some Universities may reimburse the first AU$250 when provided with receipts to this value for purchased equipment (contact your local co-ordinator to find out if this is the case).  All final entries must include a breakdown of the cost of their project as an Appendix and demonstrate that they have not exceeded these financial limits.

(4) Notwithstanding the above financial limits projects can make use of borrowed equipment to make the effect they are demonstrating easier to view/interpret.  For example, teams may make use of borrowed laptops, video displays, oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, microscopes, video cameras, power supplies etc which are not critical to the actual effect being displayed.  This diagnostic and ancilliary equipment is not included in the cost limits mentioned above. If you are unsure whether some piece of equipment falls in this category then please send an email to aip3comp@physics.uwa.edu.au.

(5) Some Physics departments may allow the outcome of this project to count towards a laboratory component for your third year course. Please contact your local co-ordinator to determine if this is the case and to determine the marking scheme in relation to this project.

(6) The teams will be required to submit a 5 page written report (using the same formatting as with the EoI) and to demonstrate it in a public forum. Each team will have 20 minutes to explain and demonstrate their project and the team members are free to decide how best to do this.

(7) The projects will be marked by a panel of judges chosen by the WA branch of the Australian Institute of Physics.  The judges will take no account of the cost of the project, the size of the team or the experience of the students in their judgement. The judges will use the following breakdown to determine their overall mark for the project: (a) 30% for originality of the idea and for difficulty of the project, (b) 30% for quality of the project equipment/simulation and the amount of effort in creating the equipment/simulation, (c) 30% for clarity of the public demonstration most particularly in respect of its ability to elucidate and explain the quantum effect, (d) 10% relating to the degree of reality of the demonstration i.e. an actual demonstration of a quantum effect scores highly, a physical demonstration of a classical analogy to the quantum effect will score lower, while a computer simulation of the effect will be lower still. Computer simulations that support a physical demonstration will not detract from overall marks, in fact they may enhance it if they enhance clarity of the demonstration.

(8) The panel of judges reserves the right to award only some prizes, or none at all, if the quality of the entries does not warrant it.

 

DEADLINE FOR WRITTEN DOCUMENT: received by aip3comp@physics.uwa.edu.au by 5PM on May 22, 2009.

DATE OF PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION: To be arranged in the week of May 25 to 29.

 

UWA Co-ordinator: Andre Luiten (andre@physics.uwa.edu.au)

Curtin Co-ordinator:  Mario Zadnik (m.zadnik@curtin.edu.au)

Murdoch Co-ordinator: TBA

Edith Cowan Co-ordinator: TBA