Rajyotsava Run

“There is no free lunch, but there are always free T-shirts.”

                                                                                                -Anonymous

          IISc is well-known for its green and beautiful campus and a jog about the campus early in the morning is perhaps the best way to explore and experience this beauty. And when there are T-shirts in the waiting, this experience becomes quite interesting (and many a time rewarding!).

          

          Many were a part of such an experience during the Rajyotsava run that took the participants through a detailed panorama of all the nooks and corners of the campus, winding though slopes and narrow lanes, greeted by bouts of fresh breath every moment and embracing the tickling sensation of cold.

           To add more to the gala, all the participants were treated with "idli-vada" at the end in an atmosphere that was suffused with the exuberance of patriotism. The run indeed served as an ideal kick-start for the festive fervor of Rajyotsava in the day that followed.    

UG Journal Club Begins....

Come August 1 and you notice yet another euphoria within the usually silent corners around the old Aerospace building, a bunch of young minds exuberant with ambition and aspirations- the "new" undergraduates have arrived!

With the objective of broadening the vision of these young minds, the "UG Journal Club" began on August 3, providing an extensive platform for the older undergraduates to share knowledge and inspiration gained during their summer internships with peers as well as the new undergraduates.

The inaugural session witnessed 4 presentations, which included lively descriptions of topics and subjects that included genetic cloning, active galactic nuclei, transcendental number theory and tokamak. It was quite heart-warming and enthusing to see the new undergraduates interact with the speakers and ask several brilliant questions.

Indeed, the entire session was an amazing roller-coaster ride into the richness of our scientific knowledge- something that was cherished by one and all.

 

Using an Optical Bench

The very word 'optics' makes me remember my high school days when we used to hold convex lenses before a paper and try to get a point-like, focused image of a distant tree, in order to find their focal lengths. I used to be quite mesmerized by the sinister, dark look of an optical bench on each of the few occasions when I saw it, and the way laser light used to traverse complicated paths, producing something even more complicated at the end, as opposed to the jolly-looking high school optics experiments. It eventually became a mnemonic for advanced research, and I was determined to use them on some big, fine day.
Fortunately, today was that big, fine day! The experiment was Laser Doppler Anemometry, involving the use of half-silvered mirrors and some convex lenses to predict the flow rate of a liquid., using the 'bench' and laser light. It was a great relief to have the stands of various apparatuses getting magnetically stuck to the bench, giving me enough time to gaze into the straightness and wonderful 'twinkles' in the path of the laser light, which had imparted an inexplicable dimension of awe to the darkness of the experiment.
Indeed, the whole process of setting up the 'bench' and performing experiments on it was a thoroughly enjoyable one!