July 09, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 12, 1427

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SWABI, July 8: A five-member team of students and two officials left for Singapore on Saturday to participate in the 10-day International Physics Olympiad, which will commence on July 8.

Dr Abdullah Sadiq, rector of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, leads the team and Dr Ibrahim Qazi is his deputy.

The students are Awais Sher Bajwa of the Resource Academia, Lahore, Fahad Mehmood of the City School, Islamabad, Nusrah Hussain of the Bahria College, Islamabad, Omer Aftab of the Lahore Grammar School, Lahore, and Syeda Saba Zehra Zaidi of the Roots High School, Rawalpindi.

Talking to Dawn before leaving for Islamabad airport from the GIK institute where the students got 14-day training, Dr Sadiq said the Physics Olympiad was one of the most prestigious scientific competitions participated by talented students from all over the world.

He said the annual competition attracted participants from many countries, including those with advanced physics education and talent.

Ms Zaidi said the course for the competition proved much harder than they expected and many of them were found unprepared at the beginning. “However, the training and available facilities gave us a chance to arm ourselves with the required knowledge of physics,” she said.

“We need a sound physics education at the grassroots level along with proper facilities and infrastructure to produce talented youth in physics and other subjects,” said Mr Mehmood.

Ms Hussain said: “Preparation for the practical portion was more than satisfactory. We actually had access to modern research equipment and that really broadened our view of physics.”

Mr Aftab hoped for a better result, saying: “We were well prepared.”

Mr Bajwa also desired to do better in the contest.

Dr Sadiq said the students had been trained in collaboration with the Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Careers Project.

The project is an extension of the National Physics Talent Contest launched by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1995.

Dr Sadiq said that with generous funding by the Higher Education Commission, the contest had also been extended to chemistry, mathematics and biology.