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A QE trio have won a major prize in a digital competition focused on the future of space travel.

The team, who are all from the same Year 9 Pearce form group, took the Innovation Award in the Galactic Challenge One Small Step competition with their design for a vehicle to explore the Moon’s surface in 2030 in preparation for establishing a human settlement there.

Several other QE teams and individuals also won awards in the competition, which was organised by a team led by Old Elizabethan Aadil Kara (2010–2017), who is Chair of Galactic Challenge.

Last year, QE hosted a Galactic Challenge event at the School and had planned to do so again this summer until the Covid-19 restrictions forced its cancellation. Instead, Galactic Challenge ran the special digital competition.

QE’s Head of Physics, Jonathan Brooke, said: “This was an exciting competition, requiring boys to exhibit creativity and scientific understanding. And at a time when everyone’s horizons have been shrunk because of lockdown, it also gave boys a timely opportunity to turn their gaze to the stars.”

Entrants were asked to produce a design for a vehicle that would be home to four astronauts during a six-month mission, taking into account factors such as how electrical power would be provided and what would be needed to support the astronauts’ living conditions.
Vignesh Rajiv, Maxwell Johnson and Sai Sivakumar took the Innovation Award – one of only four major prizes open to their age group. They proposed HNHV, the Helium-3 Noisu Habitation Vehicle (pictured right and left).

In their award citation, the competition judges explained why they had chosen the team’s entry: “This interesting proposal identified Helium-3 as a potential material to be mined from the Moon as a future energy source. Vignesh, Maxwell and Sai’s design consisted of two halves each housing two astronauts; a creative way to separate the operational and habitable components of the vehicle.”

Aadil has a longstanding involvement with Galactic Challenge, a regional competition for younger pupils and a sister competition to the UK Space Design Competition (UKSDC). In his final year at QE, Aadil progressed from the UKSDC to the International Space Settlement Design Competition, hosted by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Aadil graduates from Imperial College in Physics this summer.

Other QE successes in the competition included:

• Gold awards for two entries – Koustuv Bhowmick, of Year 8, and Krishn Bhowmick, of Year 7, for their VIXI design, and Vaibhav Gaddi, of Year 8, for his vehicle, which he named Caladenia Elegans (the elegant orchid spider)
• Silver awards to two Year 7 teams and a Year 8 team – Azmeer Shahid, Shuban Singh, Shivam Trivedi and Anish Errapothu, for Dark Voyager (pictured top); Daksh Vinnakota, Ved Nair, Ojas Jha and Keon Robert for Spatium Rimor I, and Year 8’s Ishtarth Katageri, Sachit Kori, Anirudh Terdal and Abhay Halyal for ML Pioneer
• Bronze awards for two entries – Pranav Haller, of Year 8, for his design, The Hermes, and Year 7’s Giuseppe Mangiavacchi, Trishan Chanda, Timi Banjo and Rayan Pesnani for Luna Rimor.

Two senior pupils were invited to attend a special awards ceremony after their impressive performances in the élite British Physics Olympiad competitions.

Year 11’s Tanishq Mehta was a gold award-winner in this year’s British Physics Olympiad GCSE Physics Challenge, in which his performance placed him within the top five of some 6,000 competition entrants nationwide.

And Niam Vaishnav, of Year 13, is celebrating another exceptional showing in the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (BAAO) this year, having last year been chosen to represent the UK and then winning one of only two silver medals given to the national team at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics in Beijing.

The pair were presented with certificates at the prize-giving at the Royal Institution in central London. QE Physics teacher Gillian Deakin said: “The honour given to these two young physicists at such a prestigious venue was a fitting recognition of their talent and dedication to the subject.

“They enjoyed the opportunity to meet fellow high-achievers from schools across the country and the British Physics Olympiad organisers.”

Tanishq Mehta spent several months preparing for the challenge – one of a number of competitions run by the British Physics Olympiad organisation – by practising past papers.

He recently sat the challenge’s one-hour paper, which featured both multiple-choice and short-answer sections. Teachers initially marked the papers and then sent high-scoring scripts through to the Olympiad office at Oxford. Only the top five were invited to the prize-giving.

With regard to Niam, even to have taken part in the BAAO in two consecutive years is a considerable achievement – entry is generally by invitation only.

He once again excelled in the competition: his score was among the highest in the country, which secured him an invitation to attend a training camp at Oxford University to compete for selection to the UK team.

He only narrowly missed out on that selection.

Year 13 pupil Niam Vaishnav won one of the UK’s two silver medals at the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Beijing.

His performance during the fiercely fought competition put him in the top third of the competitors, placing Niam among the world’s foremost young astrophysicists.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate Niam on his achievement and on the honour he has brought both to the School and to the country. He combined deep understanding and extensive factual knowledge with profound academic curiosity, thus exemplifying the free-thinking scholarship that we seek to cultivate at QE.

“While he is undoubtedly a talented young man, his success is the result of a great deal of hard work and he should therefore be very proud of his medal.”

Royal Astronomical Society Vice President Charles Barclay also congratulated the UK competitors: “This year the competition was particularly tough…and we are delighted with the result from this young team of five 17-year-olds.”

Although he enjoyed the competition itself, Niam says the highlights of the visit for him were meeting people from around the world who shared a common interest in astronomy. “We had lots of fun learning about our different cultures and exchanging card games! We also had the chance to see landmarks in China, such as the Great Wall, which was an amazing experience.”

Niam won his place on the five-strong national team after excelling at the British Astronomy & Astrophysics Training Camp at Oxford at Easter. His subsequent training included a spell at Marlborough College’s observatory.

He travelled with British delegates to Beijing, where he teamed up with other competitors from countries spanning the globe, including Nepal, Greece, Poland, Canada, Bolivia and Singapore. Niam and his fellow competitors stayed in the mountains near to the Great Wall.

The competition involved four tests: a five-hour theory examination, a five-hour data-analysis examination, a one-hour daytime observation round and a ten-minute night-time observation round, during which competitors could use telescopes. There was also a separate team competition in which Niam joined six people from different countries.

“The problems were tough but very interesting, with topics ranging from cosmology and dark matter to binary stars and the energy output of the sun,” he said. “Our knowledge of the sky was also tested: we were asked to recognise constellations and Messier objects [a set of 110 astronomical objects, of which 103 were included in lists published by 18th-century French astronomer Charles Messier].”

The aspects of the competition itself that stood out most for him were the questions looking into the evolution of the universe and of large-scale structures within it, as well as those which sought to answer the “big questions”, exploring the nexus at which elements of physics and philosophy merge.

The UK won two silver medals and received two ‘honourable mentions’. For a gold medal, a score of 78% was needed, for silver it was 68%, for bronze 56% and for an ‘honourable mention’ 44%.

“Overall it was an amazing experience that I will never forget, and I have made some lifelong friends from many different countries.”

Niam has already started the process for the Physics Olympiad competition next year, with Round 1 already complete, and Round 2 taking place in January.

Sixth-former Niam Vaishnav is to represent his country at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) in China this November.

Niam, of Year 12, won his place on the national team after excelling at the British Astronomy & Astrophysics Training Camp at Oxford at Easter.

His success follows that of a number of QE boys who have been chosen for national and international Science Olympiads in recent years. Niam was also in the team that achieved QE’s best-ever result in this year’s national Senior Team Maths Challenge.

Robin Hughes, Chairman of the British Physics Olympiad (which runs both the Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics teams), has now written to QE Headmaster Neil Enright to confirm Niam’s place. “He has done extremely well. It is a pleasure to have another student from QEB [Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet] on one of our teams again.

“The experience gained by a student at such an international event is one that remains with them for the rest of their lives,” added Mr Hughes, who is a Project Physicist for the Rutherford Physics Partnership.

Mr Enright said: “My congratulations go to Niam, and to his teachers, on what is a very considerable achievement. I am sure that he will find his trip both intellectually enriching and enjoyable.”

To prepare for the ten-day trip to Beijing, Niam is undergoing intensive training with his teammates. He has already taken part in a training camp at Churchill College, Cambridge, and there is a further five-day camp next month, taking place partly at Oxford University and partly at Marlborough College’s observatory.

Last year’s UK IOAA team, also made up of Year 12 AS pupils, have been very successful, reported Mr Hughes. They have secured Oxbridge places and two of them are on this year’s team for the International Physics Olympiad, which is drawn from Year 13 pupils.

The three sixth-formers entered by QE in this year’s British Physics Olympiad all won awards – and one has been invited to take part in a related competition.

Aneesh Chopada took gold in the BPhO – and has been asked to sit the Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad this week – while Abhishek Balkrishna won silver and Milan Hirji received the bronze I award. All are in Year 13.

Physics teacher Georgina Garfield said: “Our three competitors are to be congratulated: these are excellent results achieved in a prestigious competition marked at a very high level.”

More than 1,740 pupils from across the country entered the Olympiad this year. Gold awards went to the top 9.2% of entrants (who will also receive book prizes), with silver to the next 12.1%, bronze I to the next 13.2% and bronze II to the next 13.5%. The remaining entrants received commendations.

BPhO administrative secretary Lena Shams said: “The paper was designed to stretch and challenge the top young physicists in the country in a national competition.”