The IYPT, sometimes also referred to as “Physics World Cup”, is the World’s foremost annual competition in physics for pre-university students. The recipient of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics’ 2013 Medal for “outstanding contributions to international physics education”, the IYPT has a legal seat at the European Physical Society in Mulhouse, France, and is a globally leading player in the promotion of physics.

The competition is often referred to as the World’s most difficult and demanding scientific contest. In the frames of the competition student teams of five members discuss and present their solutions to 17 problems. The competition is research based and most work is done before the World Cup as such. The quality of presentations is generally much higher than secondary school level and more often than not demanding for university students, lecturers and professional researchers. The IYPT furthermore nurtures the ability to work in team, rhetorical and strategic abilities. In various years, the tournaments were attended and supported by Nobel winners, presidents of national and international Physics Societies, national ministers, international ambassadors, key executives of multinational companies, the Director General of CERN, and other high profile individuals.

Since the first 1988 tournament held in Moscow, the IYPT flag is now passed from country to country. Many of the previous tournaments were hosted by such globally renowned universities as the University of Groningen (Netherlands), Vienna University of Technology (Austria), and Nankai University (China).

In 2015, Ural Federal University will receive the IYPT flag from the preceding host, Suranaree University of Technology (Thailand). Upon the completion of the tournament, it will ultimately transfer the flag to the IYPT 2017 host, National University of Singapore.

In 2016 the IYPT will finally be back to Russia, its “Motherland”, for the first time since the 6th IYPT, which was held in Protvino, Russia. It is expected that the teams from over 30 countries from across the globe will join the 29th IYPT in 2016. With a steadily growing participant pool, the 29th IYPT 2016 can become the largest IYPT ever in terms of teams and global reach.

Ural Federal University has a broad experience of hosting large-scale international events including the ACM International Collegiate Programming Championship-2014 that was attended by 122 university teams from 44 countries. The upcoming IYPT 2016 will help to attract the brightest young talents to Ekaterinburg turning the city to the “World Capital of Physics”.