Internet Physics Olympiad - Round II

In April '00 high school students in Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg (Russia) combined with students in Seattle and San Diego (America) to participate in an internet-based science competition. Each of eight teams were composed of four American and four Russian students. Each pair of team halves were linked with their own private chat and whiteboard connection so they could consult in solving the problems. They were presented with questions and then submitted answers through an internet-based platform which was controlled at a central site; the system delivered each team's answers to separately located panels of judges. A running table of results was posted on the competition platform. This competition was an ambitious step up in complexity from the previous year's event. We demonstrated (in rudimentary form) that competitors from anywhere in the world can join in cooperative international competitions staged from a single high-technology hub.