Andover’s YPT team poses with tournament administrators and faculty advisors after making it to finals.
The 2026 Young Physicists Tournament (YPT), a physics competition bringing together teams from dozens of high schools, was held on Andover campus last weekend. Teams from each school presented original research and solutions for open-ended physics problems to a panel of judges, who asked questions and then ranked them. Andover’s team made it to finals and placed third overall, where just over two points separated all of the finalists.
Andre Wu ’26, a returning member of Andover’s YPT team, explained how the tournament’s open-ended format distinguishes it from traditional classes and competitions. Wu further described his belief that this flexibility presented a unique opportunity for competitors both during and after the competition.
“YPT is very different because there’s no right answer, and there’s very little guidance. Going into the problem, you are given a lot of freedom with how you approach it. The questions are deliberately vague. You can take it an infinite number of ways, and at the tournament, we saw a lot of different approaches to problems, which was really cool to see. Having no right answer, having to figure stuff out for yourself, is the biggest way that YPT differs from a traditional physics class. That helps everyone that’s done it a lot in terms of introducing the academic research [process],” said Wu.
There are four problems in YPT’s problem set each year, each of which has a team dedicated to solving it. Manalee Chowdhury ’28, captain of everyone on the Andover team, explained the format of the competition. In particular, she highlighted the collaborative nature of the tournament and the skills it required beyond individual problem solving. She highlighted the key roles of teamwork, communication, and strategic thinking in team success.
“The tournament has a presenting panel which consists of four people from our team. I happened to be on the presenting panel this year. You really have to work with your team, even if you’re working on different problems, to convey your findings well, really practice your presentation with them, and also learn how to find points to talk about on the opponent’s team,” said Chowdhury.
Mika Latva-Kokko, Assistant Dean of Scheduling, Instructor in Physics, and a coach for Andover’s YPT team, explained the existing academic pathway that prepares students for YPT. He explained that the Physics Prize exam and a class where students explore the YPT problem set are both involved in shaping the school’s team.
“The Physics 500 Advanced Experimental Physics class runs every fall, and it’s a class that allows the students the time and the space to study these problems, design their own experiments, conduct them, and practice presenting. At the end of the spring term, we host a Physics Prize contest where students propose experimental approaches to the problems, and based on that, we choose a maximum of 16 students for the class, and they will form our team for the YPT. Over the course of the year and during the class, we help them with whatever problems they happen to have with their experimental setup,” said Latva-Kokko.
Given that the tournament is hosted at a different school each year, Latva-Kokko reflected on the meaningfulness of Andover being the host this year. He noted that the event created opportunities for students to engage with visiting teams and the general physics community.
“As a high school competition, the Young Physicists Tournament [YPT], when it comes to physics competitions, is one of the premier research-oriented competitions. To host it is an honor, but also a big responsibility. Everybody had an opportunity to see that we can pull off a good tournament, the students got an opportunity to show off their home, and it was a good experience all around,” said Latva-Kokko.
