metadata

license: other
license_name: utqa25-eval-only
license_link: LICENSE
pretty_name: UTQA Thermodynamics Benchmark
paperswithcode_id: utqa-thermodynamics-benchmark
tags:
  - thermodynamics
  - benchmark
  - multiple-choice
  - education
  - chemistry
  - physics
task_categories:
  - multiple-choice
language:
  - en
configs:
  - config_name: default
    default: true
    data_files:
      - split: test
        path: data.csv
dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: question_number
      dtype: int32
    - name: question
      dtype: string
    - name: option_a
      dtype: string
    - name: option_b
      dtype: string
    - name: option_c
      dtype: string
    - name: option_d
      dtype: string
    - name: image
      dtype: string
    - name: correct_answer
      dtype: string
    - name: explanation
      dtype: string
    - name: image_explain
      dtype: string
  description: >
    UTQA is a 50-item benchmark on undergraduate-level thermodynamics covering
    state functions, entropy, reversibility, and diagram interpretation. Each
    question is in multiple-choice format with  exactly one correct answer, with
    explanations and (optional) figure references.

UTQA: Undergraduate Thermodynamics Question Answering Benchmark

UTQA is a 50-item multiple-choice benchmark designed to evaluate large language models on undergraduate-level thermodynamics.
It consists of single-choice questions (four options, one correct), of which 17 include associated figures.
The benchmark targets reasoning about state functions, reversibility, entropy, and diagram interpretation, rather than simple plug-and-chug calculations.

Dataset Structure

Number of items: 50
Format: CSV table + images folder
Columns:
- question_number: integer identifier
- question: question stem (text)
- option_a – option_d: four answer choices
- image: relative path to figure (if applicable; empty otherwise)
- correct_answer: one of {a, b, c, d}
- explanation: text explanation of the solution
- image_explain: additional explanation of the solution using a figure (if applicable)

Images are provided in the /images/ directory and linked from the image column.

Intended Use

UTQA is released as a benchmark for evaluation of language models and as a resource for educators and researchers studying AI capabilities in unsupervised teaching contexts.
It is not intended for use in pretraining or fine-tuning language models.

✅ Allowed

Model evaluation and benchmarking
Academic research
Teaching and educational analysis
Publication of results with proper citation

❌ Not Allowed

Pretraining or fine-tuning of models on UTQA (in whole or in part)
Incorporation into larger training corpora
Commercial use for training or data augmentation

License

This dataset is released under a Custom Evaluation-Only License (see LICENSE).

Free to use for research, education, and evaluation.
Training use is prohibited.
Attribution is required in all uses and publications.

Citation

If you use UTQA in your research, please cite:

Geißler, A., Bien, L.-S., Schöppler, F., & Hertel, T. (2025).
From Canonical to Complex: Benchmarking LLM Capabilities in Undergraduate Thermodynamics.
arXiv:2508.21452 [physics.ed-ph]. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21452

@misc{Geissler2025,
  title        = {From Canonical to Complex: Benchmarking LLM Capabilities in Undergraduate Thermodynamics}, 
  author       = {Anna Geißler and Luca-Sophie Bien and Friedrich Schöppler and Tobias Hertel},
  year         = {2025},
  eprint       = {2508.21452},
  archivePrefix= {arXiv},
  primaryClass = {physics.ed-ph},
  url          = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21452},
}