ISPhO 2024. News

2️⃣ 2nd place in "Theory and Modelling": Arsen Aghayan - 🇦🇲 Artyom Gasparyan - 🇦🇲 Smbat Poghosyan - 🇦🇲 Artem Levko - 🇧🇾 Mihail Khyrsin - 🇧🇾 Yersh Andrei - 🇧🇾 Kazymbek Iliyas - 🇰🇿 Kim Artur - 🇰🇿 Abdiev Askar - 🇰🇬 Luis Fabian Sanchez Romero - 🇵🇪 Ildar Khashaev - 🇺🇿 Barlybayev Nurassyl - 🇰🇿 Dyussebaliyev Beibarys - 🇰🇿 Abdykadyr Tair Omirtayuly - 🇰🇿 Jovan Jankovic - 🇲🇪 Muhammad Ismail Naqi - 🇵🇰 Muhammad Somaan Fater - 🇵🇰

3️⃣ 3rd place in "Theory and Modelling": Armen Gazazyan - 🇦🇲 Narek Galstyan - 🇦🇲 Narek Movsisyan - 🇦🇲 Arsen Asatryan - 🇦🇲 Anaraly uulu Emir - 🇰🇬 Baratali Bektur - 🇰🇬 Emilbekov Aitegin - 🇰🇬 Turdukeev Atai - 🇰🇬 Rivera Lopez David Summer - 🇵🇪 Ghulomzoda Huseini - 🇹🇯 Salimov Husanjon - 🇹🇯 Jumadurdy Nuryyev - 🇹🇲 Mekangeldi Janmyradov - 🇹🇲 Josué Pablo Moya Tornet - 🇨🇺 Carlos Daniel Chaviano González - 🇨🇺 Sovetkhanov Maksat - 🇰🇿 Akberdi Alibi Azamatuly - 🇰🇿 Kabdullov Nurali Dauletovich - 🇰🇿 Rabia Shahzad - 🇵🇰 Raem Anis Rahman - 🇵🇰 Muhammad Umar Danish - 🇵🇰 Anas Mayya - 🇸🇾 Mohamad Eid Al Aktaa - 🇸🇾 Ziad Badleh - 🇸🇾

🏆 Let's start with the "Theory and Modelling" nomination winners: 🌟 Honorable mentions: Gor Hasratyan - 🇦🇲 Vahe Melkonyan - 🇦🇲 Ashraf Anvari - 🇹🇯 Haidari Muhammadrobe - 🇹🇯 Mamurov Mukhammadyosin - 🇹🇯 Aynabat Veljanova - 🇹🇲 Abdulloh Mamaniyozov - 🇺🇿 Rajabov Dilshodbek - 🇺🇿 Roimer Capote Brizuela - 🇨🇺 Sergio Daneel Santiesteban - 🇨🇺 Rosmary Fernández Tamayo - 🇨🇺 AFRIYIE GRACIOUS ANNOR - 🇬🇭 AGYEMAN NANA YAW AGYAPONG - 🇬🇭 Tyulyubay Nurali - 🇰🇿 Mirkamalov Nurassyl Baurzhanuly - 🇰🇿 Tamirlan Makishev Erbolovich - 🇰🇿

🏆 Now that the Closing Ceremony is over we're ready to publish the list of the winners of the ISPhO 2024!

🏪 The Museum of Geology, Oil and Gas has over 36,000 exhibits 🦴These include minerals, rock and oil samples, as well as palaeontological finds and equipment used by geologists. The ISPhO participants were able to see all this. We publish a selection of photos from the excursion. 🔈 Tell us in the comments, did you manage to touch oil with your hands? And how was it?

🎁 Apart from the standard merch (a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, some stationary), there is something special in the ISPhO participant kit. 🧿 “Valenki-whisperers” are a Siberian amulet. According to folk legends, with their help you can attract good luck and make your cherished dreams come true. 🙊 How do you need to do that? 🥱 Before going to bed, “whisper” your request to your valenki. If the wish is sincere, then magical assistants will definitely help.

🏃‍♂️ Several times our participants and team leaders took part in the "Exercising with a champion" events - a sports warm-up before breakfast with famous sportsmen of Khanty-Mansiysk!

🕛 The Olympiad is now over halfway through, with the Experimental examination already held! 🧪 The task for the experiment was in the fields of absorption spectroscopy and chemical kinetics. Participants had to use not only the equipment but also the computer modelling software. 💻 We will be back shortly with the solutions, so stay tuned!

3️⃣ Hydraulic jump A hydraulic jump is a phenomenon in which the height of a water flow increases abruptly, accompanied by a corresponding decrease in its velocity. This process can be observed naturally, such as in rivers and canals  and even in domestic settings like a sink. In a sink, for instance, a thin layer of rapidly flowing water is formed by the stream of water falling on the surface. At some radius the flow undergoes hydraulic jump - it slows down significantly and rises in height. Hydraulic jumps find extensive application in the realm of river engineering. The use of hydraulic jumps is particularly crucial in dam construction, as the flow of water from the dam may pose significant risks. By employing a hydraulic jump, the kinetic energy of the flowing water is significantly reduced, effectively reducing potential accidents. There is a similar phenomenon in gases. When a rapidly moving gas encounters an obstruction, a shock wave is created. In this process, the gas's properties also undergo a rapid jump, which means that theoretical descriptions of these phenomena will be similar.

2️⃣ Memristors and NVRAM Memristors are semi-hypothetical electronic devices, resistance of which depends on the charge that has flowed through. Predicted in 1971 by Prof. Leon O. Chua, they still captivate minds of computer scientists and chipmakers as they can combine compute and storage, thus possibly reducing data processing costs by several orders of magnitude. As of now there only exist memristor prototypes, which students investigate in the problem by studying the equations that govern their behavior. Theory predicts that memristors also exhibit hysteresis and have "pitched" hysteresis loops under applied alternating voltage. Although it's hard to fully examine them analytically, one still can do it with some approximations. Students are asked to find various memristor parameters by analyzing these hysteresis curves numerically. From this it is possible to estimate time and energy consumption required for a data write to a memristor prototype. In fact, a lot of common electronic devices exhibit memristor-like behavior, for example, thermistors or gas-discharge lamps. The processes in these devices and memristors are not fully mathematically equivalent, but produce the same qualitative results, as one can see from the Science Fest tasks for the "Memristors" lecture. Finally, we cover segnetoelectric-based non-volatile random access memory, which is possible due to the fact that segnetoelectrics exhibit spontaneous polarization and conserve it without external energy source. It turns out that when strong enough external electric field is applied, some equilibrium states of a segnetoelectric material will cease to exist, forcing it to switch to another state. This can be used to write data to segnetoelectric memory cells. Students examine how these equilibrium states behave under the external field and how much energy is required for data writes. Equilibrium states of segnetoelectric materials and their response to external electric field, as well as energy costs when interacting with segnetoelectrics were also covered during the Science Fest.

1️⃣ Thermal oxidation Thermal oxidation is the process of controlled formation of a very thin (tens/hundreds of nanometers) oxide film on the surface of silicon at high temperatures. Thermal oxidation can be applied to different materials, but is most commonly applied to silicon dioxide (silica) films in the semiconductor industry. The technique is based on the exponential dependence of diffusion rates in solids on temperature. The main factors of the process were discovered in 1965 by Bruce Deal and Andrew Grove. Since silica is transparent to visible light and silicon is opaque, the sample with the grown oxide film is a brilliant object for optical analysis. Ellipsometry is a powerful technique for studying the optical properties of thin films. It is based on the comparison of the reflection amplitude coefficients of s-polarized and p-polarized waves from the surface of the film. The extraordinary precision is achieved by measuring the relative difference (ratio of amplitudes and phase difference) between waves of different polarizations. This makes the technique highly resistant to various fluctuations in the power of the radiation source and the sensitivity of the receiver. Ellipsometry also makes it possible to measure the characteristics of a sample without direct mechanical contact with it, allowing measurements to be carried out in real time and in situ. In the problem, we discuss the ellipsometry applied to the growth of silica film. The participants simulate a real experiment: they can "order" data with different experimental setups and mostly process the data with already given soft. The theoretical part of the problem is a natural extension of the problems given at the Science Fest. It is the combination of Fresnel equations and Sapphire deposition optical control. The dispersion of silica and silicon are also very important there, and they were discussed in Cauchy's transmission equation, but we didn't focus our attention on it and just implemented the dispersion as part of the given software.

😮 And now we can publish the problems of the Theoretical examination of the ISPhO 2024! 🔥 The solutions are also available now.

🚶‍♂️ The cultural programme began today! 😮 The first stop on the route was the Torum Maa open-air Ethnographic Museum. Here the participants of the Olympiad could get acquainted with the life of the indigenous peoples of Ugra: Khanty, Mansi and Nenets. 😋 After tasting the national dishes, the contestants went to the Museum of Nature and Man to explore the exhibition "Mythological Time”. 👀 Until the end of the competition the participants will visit two other exhibition areas.

✍️ The ISPhO Theoretical examination was conducted today! 💪 Today marked the first part of the Olympiad examinations. The tasks were advanced by the elements of computer modelling, making the examination even more challenging and exciting. 🥇 The results of the theoretical part (for all participants, onsite and remote) will be used to qualify for the special competition "Theory and Modelling".