About Mikołaj Powierża

Mikołaj Powierża is a member of the First Steps in Science program.

In the school year 2018/2019, the Institute of Physics in the Silesian Intercollegiate Centre for Education and Interdisciplinary Research in Chorzów, in cooperation with the EDU-RES Foundation, began a tutorial programme “First Steps in Science” aimed at secondary school students.

The main objective of the programme is to broaden individual interests of students under the supervision of academic teachers, as well as to develop their potential both in the scientific and personal sphere.

Eighty students from schools all over Silesia applied to the Program, from among which – as a result of a strict selection – the project implementers selected the best twenty. Among them was a 2e1 class student Mikołaj Powierża.

Mikołaj was covered by the tutorial supervision of a scientific and didactic employee of the Institute of Physics, who conducts research that coincides thematically with the interests and abilities of the student. Students take part in weekly workshops on mathematics, physics and computer science, interdisciplinary scientific seminars conducted by titular professors and in selected course lectures for first-year students, including algebra, geometry and basics of physics.

Mikołaj, under the guidance of his tutor, also carries out a scientific project, about which he himself says yes:

Cooperation with the university in a tutoring program, apart from development, is to bring concrete results – in my case it is a project in sociophysics, which involves the examination of applause using a physical model. It is an analogy between a physical and a social phenomenon. Particles are an analogy to people in the audience, and their interactions are described by the laws of thermodynamics. My task is to adjust the parameters of the computer simulation of this model so that the physical quantities change similarly to the volume of applause on the recording. We received one of these recordings from the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), and the rest of them were performed at the concert “Chorzów disenchanted”. If everything goes well, my results will be published in a scientific publication.

Participation in the program is a great scientific adventure for Mikołaj. We keep our fingers crossed!