Inspire Science Internship Camp - KIIT College Gurgaon

INTRODUCTION:

Innovation in science pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) is an innovative program sponsored and managed by the Department of Science & Technology for attraction of talent to science. The basic objective of Inspire is to communicate to the youth of the country the excitements of creative pursuit of science, attract talent to the study of science at an early age and thus build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the science & technology system and R&D base.  With the same objective in mind KIIT (Vidyapati Sansthan) initiated the effort with the all the support from the DST in the year 2012 and have been since then successfully taking it further. We are glad and privileged to announce and conduct the third INSPIRE Science Camp 2015 program in our campus.

Vidyapati Sansthan, a registered educational society was established in 1969 with an objective of imparting quality education which transforms our new generation youth into meaningful citizen of the country. KIIT being the followers of Gandhian philosophy awaken the students and make them believe the higher values of simplicity enjoined with the needs of complete understanding of the modern scientific technology.

Every camp is incomplete without its participants. In this camp also, around 200 students participated from around 12 schools.

The Inaugural session started at 9:30 am with lamp lightening and seeking the blessings of Goddess Saraswati by the dignitaries. Dr. S. S.Agrawal Director General, KIIT Groups of Colleges presented the welcome address. He discussed about the importance of Science as we depend on Technology nowadays. He introduced about Vidyapathi Sansthan to the guests and students. He said that Excellence and Education are the keys which if a person adopts, and then nobody can stop him by growing to the heights. KIIT follows Gandhian value system religiously. He quoted “Technology without spiritual life is blind” and we should not forget the values. He introduced the Audience with all the Guests and suggested the students to interact with all these Eminent Scientists and experts to get the maximum benefit of this camp and get inspired by them.

In his welcome speech Dr. S S Aggarwal, urged the budding scientists to develop a scientific temper like APJ Abdul Kalam Azad, who despite his humble beginning rose to the highest post of DRDO.

In his lecture he briefed the benefits of camp as to following subjects under Basic and Natural Sciences are within the scope of INSPIRE Scholarship for pursuing BSc/BS/Int. MSc/Int. MS course: (1) Physics, (2) Chemistry, (3) Mathematics, (4) Biology, (5) Statistics, (6) Geology, (7) Astrophysics, (8) Astronomy, (9) Electronics, (10) Botany, (11) Zoology, (12) Bio-chemistry, (13) Anthropology, (14) Microbiology, (15) Geophysics, (16) Geochemistry, (17) Atmospheric Sciences & (18) Oceanic Sciences. The student must be enrolled into the aforementioned BSc, BS, Int. MSc/Int.MS courses before applying for INSPIRE Scholarship. The scholarship is valued at Rs. 80,000/- per annum. Each candidate will receive annual scholarship total value of Rs. 60,000/- in cash. All the SHE scholars are required to undertake summer research projects under an active researcher in any recognized research centres across India. A summer time attachment fee of Rs. 20,000/- will be paid as Mentorship every year. Selected candidates will be supported for a maximum period of five years, starting from the 1st year BSc, BS, Int. MSc/Int.MS or until the completion of the course, whichever is earlier.

Continuation of the scholarship for the selected candidates is based on good academic performance in the examinations conducted by the University and upon the recommendation by the Head of the Institution. One can apply for the scholarship through online or offline modes.

Dr. Krishan Lal

Dr. Krishan lal, Chief Guest, presented his Inaugural speech. Dr. Krishan lal was President of Indian National Science Academy, Allahabad. He was a member of APAM (1997) and President, International Crystallographic Association (ICA) (2003-07). He received S.K.Mitra Birth Centenary Gold Medal of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA)(2007).He worked at the IBM Watson Research centre (1971-72) and was visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. He was also a visiting professor at IIT Delhi and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He gave his inaugural lecture on ‘Crystallography’ as is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in the crystalline solids (see crystal structure). The word "crystallography" derives from the Greek words crystalline "cold drop, frozen drop", with its meaning extending to all solids with some degree of transparency. In July 2012, the United Nations recognised the importance of the science of crystallography by proclaiming that 2015 would be the International Year of Crystallography. X-ray crystallography is used to determine the structure of large bio molecules such as proteins.

Before the development of X-ray diffraction crystallography, the study of crystals was based on physical measurements of their geometry. This involved measuring the angles of crystal faces relative each other and to theoretical reference axes (crystallographic axes), and establishing the symmetry of the crystal in question. This physical measurement is carried out using a goniometer. Crystallographic methods now depend on analysis of the diffraction patterns of a sample targeted by a beam of some type. X-rays are most commonly used; other beams used include electrons or neutrons. This is facilitated by the wave properties of the particles. Crystallographers often explicitly state the type of beam used, as in the terms X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction and electron diffraction. These three types of radiation interact with the specimen in different ways. X-rays interact with the spatial distribution of electrons in the sample.

Electrons are charged particles and therefore interact with the total charge distribution of both the atomic nuclei and the electrons of the sample.

Neutrons are scattered by the atomic nuclei through the strong nuclear forces, but in addition, the magnetic moment of neutrons is non-zero. They are therefore also scattered by magnetic fields. When neutrons are scattered from hydrogen-containing materials, they produce diffraction patterns with high noise levels. However, the material can sometimes be treated to substitute deuterium for hydrogen.

Because of these different forms of interaction, the three types of radiation are suitable for different crystallographic studies. Some materials that have been analyzed using crystallography, such as proteins, do not occur naturally as crystals. Typically, such molecules are placed in solution and allowed to slowly crystallize through vapour diffusion. A drop of solution containing the molecule, buffer, and precipitants is sealed in a container with a reservoir containing a hygroscopic solution. Water in the drop diffuses to the reservoir, slowly increasing the concentration and allowing a crystal to form. If the concentration were to rise more quickly, the molecule would simply precipitate out of solution, resulting in disorderly granules rather than an orderly and hence usable crystal.

Once a crystal is obtained, data can be collected using a beam of radiation. Although many universities that engage in crystallographic research have their own X-ray producing equipment, synchrotrons are often used as X-ray sources, because of the purer and more complete patterns such sources can generate. Synchrotron sources also have a much higher intensity of X-ray beams, so data collection takes a fraction of the time normally necessary at weaker sources. Complementary neutron crystallography techniques are used to identify the positions of hydrogen atoms, since X-rays only interact very weakly with light elements such as hydrogen.

Producing an image from a diffraction pattern requires sophisticated mathematics and often an iterative process of modelling and refinement.

The students and the dignitaries then moved for lunch. After the lunch all were gathered in Sir. C.V.Raman auditorium where Dr. Neelima Kamrah presented her lecture on the topic”……..” where she informed the students about the application of science especially chemistry in day to day life. She started with the simple framing of the articles of daily life involving the chemical structures and some other objects. As for example using the Meta derivative of benzene structure, bowl and –list she created the word metabolism. The students cheered and participated in the other word frames. She also told students that chemistry is involved in each and every aspect of our body. When we cry Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tears. They contain significantly greater quantities of the hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Leu-enkephalin and the elements potassium and manganese. Stress hormones such as cortisol are released. Crying is what is called a distress vocalization shown in animals that are mobile and dependent. She informed students that green vegetables contain chlorophyll which could be prevented during cooking if we keep the vegetable in boiled water containing a pinch of salt. Then she demonstrated activities such as making of hand sanitizer which could be prepared using isopropanol, essential oil and aloe-Vera gel. Other than this scholastic activity she also made students know how to keep their passwords secret by writing them with invisible ink made of lemon juice and that could be made visible after heating the paper. Another activity demonstrated was that of determination of formalin as adulterant that is added to the milk for preserving it. The session was highly appreciated by the students who gave their standing ovation. Dr. Vimla Yadav assisted her in demonstrating the activities.

After this enthusiastic session Dr SK Aggarwal, Principal of the college encouraged the audience in his interactive session to try to find newer-different solutions in their day to day life and thus make innovations. He said that the Inspire camp should catalyze them to scientific temper and should also culminate into their becoming eminent scientists over the long professional research careers. He also said about the benefits of the camp. He said that scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) is a component scheme under Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), which is a flagship programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. It aims to engage young talents for the study of Science and Technology and pursue research as a career and to augment youth to undertake higher education in Science intensive courses by providing scholarships to deserving students. Under this scheme SHE, 10,000 scholarships, each valued at Rs. 80,000/- are announced annually for students pursuing Bachelors and Masters level courses in Basic and Natural Sciences.

He paid his Vote of thanks with the words that we all must be aware of how many inventions are taking place these days and how many of them are we aware of. He asked the students about the place where most of the inventions take place.

The break was given after this interactive session for tea. When the students collected again in the auditorium after the break they were shown a science movie named ‘origin of earth’ that was followed by a quiz dependent on the movie. The quiz included questions as the age of earth, the formation of clouds, sequence of originating life and many more. The students found the movie beneficial as they came to know about their environment and the earth. The session ended with the students moving for dinner.