Indian high schoolers 'attoPION' win CERN Beamline for Schools competition
Five Indian high schoolers, calling themselves "attoPION," just won the global Beamline for Schools competition at CERN.
Their project beat out entries from countries like Bangladesh, Turkiye, the UK and the US.
The coolest part? Their experiment will be tested at CERN, the world's top particle physics lab in Geneva.
Students self-taught, advised by MIT mentor
The team members come from different cities, Bansal Junior College, Nizamabad; Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru; The Shri Ram Global School, Greater Noida; and Purv International School, Durgapur, but worked together online to tackle a tough topic: how pions (tiny particles) change when they hit light atoms.
Even without formal training in particle physics, they taught themselves using textbooks and got advice from an MIT mentor.
All that dedication paid off with a win on the world stage.