Asian Physics Olympiad

The Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) is an annual physics competition for high school students from Asia and Oceania regions. It is one of the International Science Olympiads. The first APhO was hosted by Indonesia in 2000. The next Asian Physics Olympiad (2020) will be held in Taiwan

APhO has its origins in the International Physics Olympiad and is conducted according to similar statutes (One five-hour theoretical examination and one or two laboratory examinations). It is usually held about two months before the IPhO and can also be seen as additional training for the teams.[1]

Each national delegation is made up of eight competitors (unlike five in the IPhO) plus two leaders. Observers may also accompany a national team. The leaders are involved in the selection, preparation and translation of the exam tasks, and the translation and marking of exam papers. The students compete as individuals, and must sit through intensive theoretical and laboratory examinations. For their efforts the students can be awarded a medal (gold, silver or bronze) or an honorable mention.

History

In 1999, the team leader of Indonesia, Prof. Yohanes Surya, Ph.D., together with the president of IPhO, Prof.Waldemar Gorzkowski, undertook to create and organize the first APhO, which was held in Indonesia, between April 24 and May 2, 2000. At this time, prof. Gorzkowski was also working in Indonesia to help with the IPhO team. The event attracted participants from 12 Asian countries. It now is attended by up to 27 countries.[2]

Actively participating countries include Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, China Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Russia and Romania have participated as guest teams[2] in the past years.

Differences between APhO and IPhO

APhO has 8 students in each delegation, while IPhO has 5.

The award system

In 2001, the IPhO International Board accepted a new system of awarding the prizes.[3] The new system, designed by Cyril Isenberg and Dr. Gunter Lind was based on relative number of contestants for each type of award, instead of the score boundaries defined by percentage of the best contestant's score.

This was not acceptable for APhO, because the average level of contestants is different. The old system remained in power for APhO since the beginning up to 9th APhO in Mongolia, where the leaders voted for replacing it by a new award system suggested by Dr. Eli Raz from the Israeli delegation. The new system, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Israeli Award System, is based on a reference score that is the lowest between twice the median score and the mean score of the top 3 participants.[4] It was first used on 10th APhO in Thailand.

Summary

Dates and locations[5] of the APhO:

Number
 Year
 City
 Country
 Date
Countries
12000Karawaci  Indonesia April 23 - May 2, 200010
22001Taipei Chinese Taipei April 22 - May 1, 200112
32002Singapore Singapore May 6–14, 2002 15
42003Bangkok  Thailand April 20–29, 2003 10
52004Hanoi Vietnam April 26 - May 4, 2004 13
62005Pekanbaru Indonesia April 24 - May 2, 2005 17
72006Almaty  Kazakhstan April 22–30, 2006 18
82007Shanghai  China April 21–29, 2007 22
92008Ulaanbaatar Mongolia April 20–28, 2008 18
102009Bangkok  Thailand April 24 - May 2, 2009 15
112010Taipei Chinese Taipei April 23 - May 1, 2010 16
122011Tel Aviv Israel May 1–9, 201116
132012New Delhi India April 30 - May 7, 201221
142013Bogor Indonesia May 5–13, 201320
152014Singapore Singapore May 11–19, 2014 27
162015Hangzhou  China May 3–11, 201525
172016Hong Kong Hong Kong May 1–9, 201627
182017Yakutsk Russia May 1–9, 2017 24
192018Hanoi VietnamMay 5–15, 201825
202019Adelaide Australia May 5–13, 2019 23
212020Taipei Chinese Taipei Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[6]

See also

References
  1. APhO history
  2. "Statistics of Participant Countries of APhO" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  3. Minutes of the Meetings of the International Board during the XXXII International Physics Olympiad in Antalya (Turkey) June 28 – July 6, 2001
  4. "Statutes of the Asian Physics Olympiad". Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. "APhO - Past and Future Organizers". Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  6. "APHO 2020". Retrieved 2020-03-31.
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