UK Safe Crackers to head to Israel

Three teams of sixth-form students are once again to head to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in April to take part in an International Safecracking Tournament. The winning teams, who are studying physics at A-Level, fought off tough competition from a total of 23 teams at Weizmann UK’s seventh annual safe cracking tournament which took place at Dulwich College on Sunday 10 February.

Over 120 Year 12 students from 15 schools across the UK competed to break into securely locked devices by pitting their physics knowledge against each other.

Participating teams were tasked with designing a safe which could be cracked only by solving two physics riddles. Each team had to be able to open their own safe in under 5 minutes but needed to keep their opponents stumped for at least 10 minutes.

The teams were competing to win a travel grant to enable them to take their safes to the next level: the International Safe Cracking Tournament at the Weizmann Institute of Science which will take place in Israel on 7-11 April.

The three teams of lucky students that will travel to Israel are:

1^st place: St Paul’s School – The Physics Penitentiary

2^nd place: Dulwich College – Hyperloop

3^rd place: Eltham College – Box of Laws

The competition was judged by a panel of experts including three Israeli Physicists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and judges from the UK including Caroline Davis (Institute of Physics), Thomas Briggs (Bletchley Park).

Two former UK students of the Dr Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institution acted as mentors to the physics teams on the day and took part in an enlightening discussion about their experiences on the ISSI programme when they spent a month in Israel working as part of a research team alongside scientists at the Weizmann Institute. They encouraged the Year 12 audience to apply for the programme next year.

The Weizmann UK Safe Cracking Tournament is CREST accredited and students who take part can use their work to gain a Gold CREST Award which is recognised by both UCAS and the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme. The CREST scheme is run by the British Science Association and accredits science, technology, engineering and maths activities for young people.

Sheridan Gould, Executive Director of Weizmann UK said: “This competition is a quirky way to really put to the test those who have just started their physics studies at A-Level. There is a huge range of learning that they need to succeed in this competition. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to fund the winning teams to travel to Israel.”

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Published: February 12, 2019