Vigyanotsav is an annual Science Fest conducted by the Junior Science Club (JSC), an organization run by Integrated science students of, College for Integrated Studies (CIS) at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), for high school students all around the city. This fest kicked off on 2nd February 2019 and will also be conducted on 9th February 2019. Vigyanotsav is a celebration of science and an attempt to motivate the young minds to understand, appreciate and pursue science in the future. A lot of fun activities, laboratory visits, and competitions were conducted on the 1st day of the two-day event. Since its inception, Vigyanotsav has been a platform where hundreds of students have been exposed to various scientific activities in our university.
Vigyanotsav is one of the main events conducted by the Junior Science Club. JSC aims to promote the spirit of science among students in the university community by organizing various science-based activities such as workshops, lectures, competitions and visits to facilities and labs.
A group of 170 Students from various schools in the city participated in the event, mostly from government schools represented by an NGO, United Way of Hyderabad (UWH), Somajiguda. The schools that participated in the event include Jubilee Hills Public School, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kendriya Vidyalaya Gachibowli, Kendriya Vidyalaya UoH to mention a few.
The event was inaugurated by the Faculty coordinators of JSC, Prof Sharmishta Banerjee from the School of Life Sciences and Dr S Ilangovan from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, with inspiring words for the Young Minds.
The first event of Vigyanotsav 2019 was a Distinguished lecture by Prof Debashis Acharya from School of Economics, University of Hyderabad. He is an esteemed researcher in the areas of macro-monetary economics and financial economics and has published in national and international journals like International Journal of Emerging Markets, Economic and Political Weekly and Journal of Economic Studies.
The lecture was followed by a series of competitions, where the students put up impressive performances in the quiz, Just-a-Minute, and writing competitions.
The competitive spirit did not stop the students from interacting among themselves. The preliminary round of quiz saw many pairs participating with zeal. Answers to the questions were discussed with much intrigue from the students. Just-a-Minute session witnessed a different level of competitiveness when students volunteered to have another round.
During the breaks in between sessions, short interesting videos and documentaries were screened for the benefit of the students.
In the afternoon, was the much-awaited visits to Research Laboratories in the University Campus wherein the students visited four specialised centres for research- Central Instruments Laboratory (CIL), Materials Testing Lab of School of Engineering Sciences and Technology (SEST), Mineralogy and Petrology Lab of Centre for Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) and an interdisciplinary in Centre for integrated Studies about the scientific basis of colour formation in case of insects and feathers of birds.
Throughout the event there was a constant and healthy interaction between the students of the schools and the Coordinators about the university, studying science and research along with inquisitive questions in various scientific respects. Clearly the event was a grand success.
Our whole hearted thanks to the Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, Prof Appa Rao Podile and to the Director, College for Integrated studies, Prof Sanjay Subodh for entrusting us with the opportunity of organising Vigyanotsav 2019 and making the event possible.
-By R K Rupesh, JSC Coordinator