KOCHI: The concluding state International Year of Light (IYL) Festival ‘Bala Sasthra Vijnanotsavam’ will be held at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) for three days from April 5. Cusat Vice Chancellor Dr. Letha .J will inaugurate event at 10 am at the polymer science auditorium on Tuesday.
A total of 157 children accompanied by two teachers from each district would engage in problem solving and work on own projects at photonics laboratory and Centre for Science in Society, as part of the event. Cusat Vice Chancellor Dr. Letha .J will inaugurate the Children’s Science Congress at 10 am at the polymer science auditorium on Tuesday.
The Kerala section and Kochi sub section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest organisation for advancing technology, is conducting the year-long IYL festival among school children in association with the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad and Energy Management Centre (EMC), Kerala.
The participants at the state level event will have the opportunity to be get noticed by eminent scientists, professors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, who will stay with them and mentor them. The Successful participants can expect during the next 12 months to visit industries, technical education institutions, and research laboratories in Kerala, purely according to their choice of field, abilities and ambitions.
Prof. V.K.Damodaran, IYL co-ordinator, IEEE, Kerala, said that the initiative was launched by IEEE with the support of NeST group with the UN General Assembly declaring 2015 as the International Year of Light. The IYL festival involved 12,600 plus schools in the state. “In successive steps and nearly 700
panchayat and municipal levels, 129 regional and 14 district level fests, the
students experienced the joy of learning of optics and related technologies.
By 2016, 76 students from upper primary and 81 students from high school sections emerged capable of formulating new projects on their own and participate in the state fest,” said Prof. V.K. Damaodaran.
