Gujarat Council for Science and Technology (GUJCOST)

Srinivasa Ramanujan, was the Indian mathematician born December 22, 1887 and hence his birth anniversary is celebrated as National Mathematics Day nationwide. He worked out the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, the functional equations of the zeta function, and his own theory of divergent series. India is a land with a golden heritage. India has given to the world invention of “Zero” and the “Decimal-System”. The concept of Vedic Mathematics was also derived by ancients which can be used with specific techniques for solving problems and numerical calculations very fast. These basic mathematics concepts can be seen in the ancient literature, but ignored or not easily understood by the people. The national Mathematics Day provide opportunity to inspire the young generation about the contribution of Indian Mathematician and rich legacy of culture. This will also motivate them to With this motive, GUJCOST and Community Science Centre established at district level organized various programme to sensitize the young generation about the GUJCOST in association with Vigyan Prasar, Delhi organized two virtual interactive sessions with the expert on 21st and 22nd December. The live streaming of session on YouTube was

Jupiter and Saturn are the two big and bright planet of the solar system. Since Jupiter takes a little less than 12 years to circle the sun and Saturn takes more than 29, the planets appear to earthlings to meet roughly every 20 years, what astronomers call a "great conjunction." In the month of December starting from 15th both the planet seen near to each other through naked eye. The nearest view was on December 21st, which is supposed to be the longest night of the year and scientifically known as beginning of the Winter Solstice. Jupiter and Saturn, which are actually separated by more than 400 million miles, appeared closer to each other in the night sky than they have for centuries. The event was rare of its kind as it was observed in 16th Century last time and next it will appear in year 2080.

In order to bring the awareness about this celestial conjunction and to understand its scientific significance, Gujarat Council on Science & Technology (GUJCOST) organised a special outreach programme through its Community Science Centre (CSC) network in all districts of the state. GUJCOST has prepared the basic information about the planet Jupiter and Saturn and their rare conjunction and disseminated through illustrative posters and audio-visual presentations by social media updates. A special outreach virtual live-talk was organised on Sunday, 20th December 2020 at 4.00 pm to inspire more students, science volunteers and interested sky-waters to discuss science of Great Conjunction in detail. Dr. Vinay B Kamble, Former Director, Vigyan Prasar delivered session on historical aspects of the Planetary Conjunction. He explained the geometry of planet rotation, regular pattern of conjunction and the details of conjunction that took place in the past. Dr. C. M. Nagrani, former senior scientist, SAC-ISRO discussed on the method of observation and other interesting facts about the Conjunction. Dr. Vishal Joshi, Scientist working on Astronomy and Astrophysics Division of PRL interacted on scientific aspects of the mission deployed for the discoveries on planet Jupiter and Saturn like Voyager 1 &2, Cassini, Pioneer. He showed the real pictures captured by large telescope to study the atmosphere of both planets. In addition, and in the context of COVID 19 social distancing and protocol, GUJCOST has also arranged observation of Great Conjunction on Monday evening at Gandhinagar and all CSCs in different districts on 21st December,2020.

The Nobel prize is highest civic honor for the discoveries and contribution for benefits of mankind. The Norwegian Nobel committee is responsible for selection of Nobel Prizes every year. Between 1901 and 2020 total 609 noble prizes is awarded in the field of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economy. The Award cycle starts with Preparation to receive nomination starts from September, while final announcement made on October and Award ceremony held on 10th December, death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. It’s necessary to make dialogue on Nobel winning discoveries with new generation that will open the avenues of discoveries. Science is always about the learning why and hence upcoming Regional Science Museum is also having dedicated gallery with aim to stimulates the curiosity, innovative thinking and to witness how discovery become beneficial for human kind and awarded as Noble Prize. On this occasion, GUJCOST planned outreach programme on Youtube and Facebook which includes Live streaming of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony along with live discussion from the subject expert who will explain the innovation or research done by Noble Laureate in simple language. Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Charusat University, Dr. Pankaj Joshi explain the discovery in Physics Nobel 2020. In his talk he explained about formation of stars, black hole and galaxy and how this discovery will help to learn the mysterious universe for the Astro scientist. Dr. Rushikesh Joshi from Biochemistry Dept. Gujarat University explained about the Chemistry prize of 2020. CASPR/Cas9 tool for genetic scissor is helpful to edit gene that will provide scope to discover medicine and therapy for genetic disease. He also elaborated the experimental implementation of this tool used for hybrid new breed of Rice. Dr. Jagruti Prajapati, Professor at GMERS Medical college, Gandhinagar discussed about the Hepatitis C: Global threat to Health. The Discovery of novel Hepatitis C virus will lead to establish more efficient and accurate testing methods and antiviral drug to treat the disease. At the end of session, live telecast of the virtual Award Ceremony from Stockholm was streamed. The programme was well attended by more than 700 participants.

As youngsters, we regularly have affectionate memories about story at our bedside. The mystery of our connection to stories is that it animates our feelings. It is energizing to find how the contention gets settled. The possibility of narrating in science is an entirely sensible approach to way to deal with illustrative on logical perceptions. Thus, there is a story-like approach that can catch the consideration of youngsters and grown-ups. With this aims, Community Science Centers of GUJCOST are taking new initiative where eminent story tellers will put up the science to the students in interesting way. Such programmes is planned by C C Patel Community Science Centre Anand in collaboration with Children University from 4th December to 14th December and interested stakeholder can reach out to the Youtube Channel of CSC Anand to attend the week long programme. (Inset pictures: On the first day of programme, Dr K N Joshipura discussing on Prof Jagdish Chandra Bose)

On the 124th Birth Anniversary of Salim Ali GUJCOST organized citizen science session on Bird Watching. Salim Ali was the first Ornithologist of the India who started documenting the bird watching scientific way. He has also written many book on the Indian Birds and to recognize his efforts Indian Government has named National park and Sanctuary in his name. The Citizen Science programme was organized to make people aware on how to do bird watching like Salim Ali. The video autobiography of Salim Ali in local language was played over the session. Mr. Dhaval Varagiya, Programme Officer, Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune explained basic of bird watching and various open authorized sources to identify and collect the data scientifically. He also elaborated the characteristics of birds of Gujarat. The session was live on YouTube and Facebook where more than 200 people attended the session.

For the popularization and understanding of the new STI policy amongst active researchers’ faculties and research scholars of Universities, GUJCOST took initiative for identification of appropriate research problems and to prepare the proposals for funding opportunities available under STI policy. Under this initiative GUJCOST is conducting orientation programmes in collaboration with various universities. Three such orientation programmes were conducted at Nirma University on 20th October 2020, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University on 27th October 2020, Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology, Surat on 29th October 2020, R.K. University on 6th November 2020, KSKV Kutch University on 11 December 2020 and Ganpat University on 18th December 2020 through Video Conferencing. Around 600 faculties, researchers and research scholars participated in this webinar. The STI Policy and its two schemes namely: Research and Development in Emerging Fields of S&T and Technology Demonstration and Pilot Deployment were discussed at length during this session. Information about the Intellectual Property Facilitation at GUJCOST was also given during this session. An activity session was conducted for problem statement drafting was also done for the faculties of the university.

Every year on the second Wednesday of October is celebrated by the UN as International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. On this day, various programs are organized to spread awareness among the people to fight against natural calamities and be prepared. The current Covid-15 pandemic is also a global disaster and more than 200 countries are fighting. In addition, the effects of this disaster are likely to be felt for a very long time . Schools have been closed for a long time as part of the fight against the disaster and education is also being conducted online. In such a situation, a webinar was organized by GUJCOST for the students to discuss the topic "Be Prepared Be Safe". The event was held on October 15, 2020 (Wednesday) from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm on Google Platform. Dr. Sailaja Nair, Former Principal, Rajasthan Hindi High School; K Basivi Reddy, Former Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Gandhinagar; Mohanchandra Satyavali, Acharya, Kendriya Vidyalaya No: 1, Gandhinagar; Nita Shah, Prinicpal, Seth Amullah School, Ahmedabad were speakers. Retired Principal of Rajasthan Hindi High School Ahmedabad Dr. Shailaja Nair discussed the effects of the Covid 19 epidemic on schools and children and the remedies for these effects. K Basivi Reddy, a retired principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, said the Pandemic has given students the opportunity to learn new things by being constantly active. Kendriya Vidyalaya principal Mohanchandra Satyawali discussed the precaution measures to be kept in mind by the students in the new normal phase. Principal Nita Shah of Seth Amulakh School Ahmedabad gave a positive message to the students in Covid-19 epidemic and asked them to continue online education with strong morale and take care of themselves and their families.

The World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates were chosen to commemorate two important events in the history of space exploration: October 4, 1957 launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, by the Soviet Union, and the October 10, 1967 signing of a landmark international treaty, governing activities related to space exploration and the peaceful uses of outer space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. In order to bring better awareness and understanding about the on-going space exploration and space technology related activities and the success stories of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Gujarat Council on Science & Technology (GUJCOST), Gujarat Science City and the Space Applications Centre (SAC-ISRO) are jointly celebrating the World Space Week programme in a virtual way. In this context, webinar sessions on the theme, “Satellites improve life - Indian Satellites for Atmanirbhar Bharat” was organized on 4th Oct. 2020 (Sunday) from 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm. On the concluding day (10th Oct., 2020), a special session was planned to orient the students to design payloads for student satellites to carry out different scientific experiments in space to make them more confident and innovative. The webinar was attended by approx. 1000 students from STEM di s c ipl ines , teacher s , s c ience communicators, community science coordinators from all districts in the state as well as from other State S&T Councils in the country

"For the popularization and understanding of the new STI policy amongst active researchers’ faculties and research scholars of Universities, GUJCOST took initiative for identification of appropriate research problems and to prepare the proposals for funding opportunities available under STI policy. Under this initiative GUJCOST is conducting orientation programmes in collaboration with various universities. Three such orientation programmes were conducted with SVNIT, Surat on 7th July 2020, Dharmsinh Desai University on 5th September, 2020 and Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan on 29th September, 2020 through Video Conferencing. Around 200 faculties, researchers and research scholars participated in this webinar. The STI Policy and its two schemes namely: Research and Development in Emerging Fields of S&T and Technology Demonstration and Pilot Deployment were discussed at length during this session. Information about the Intellectual Property Facilitation at GUJCOST was also given during this session. An activity session was conducted for problem statement drafting was also done for the faculties of the university."

"GUJCOST in collaboration with Climate Change Department and Gujarat Energy Development Agency organized webinar on Ozone Day: past present and future. Dr S Ramachandran from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad delivered insightful talk on 16th Sepember,2020. The special event organized by District Community Science Centre across the state to spread awareness about the importance of Ozone layer. Gandhinagar and Anand CSC released publication leaflet digitally carrying information and quick quiz on Ozone Layer. Amreli District organized Ozone day theme based drawing competition for the students. Bhavnagar and Botad district organized live talk while Anand, Surat and Gir Somnath district organized on-line quiz for students. The on-line elocution competition was organized by Morbi districts."

"As per the current trends in the world towards robotics, many STEM institutions in India and the world has started special interest in robotics. In the STI policy, one of the identified emerging areas is Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Presently, in Gujarat, very few engineering institutions are having separate specialization on robotics and artificial intelligence. In order to explore more in this emerging field and to provide a skill set among students, GUJCOST proposes the organization of Robot Making Competition (ROBOFEST- GUJARAT 2.0) among students in STEM institutions in the state after the successful completion of ROBOFEST- GUJARAT 1.0. The programme consists of three levels and in seven categories of robot making:
1. Four-legged robot with quadrupedal motion
2. Submarine or under water robot
3. Rovers (Eight wheels, 3 to 4 free size with a camera mounted, auto memory/ GPS guided)
4. Prosthetic limbs with remote sensors
5. Pipe climbing robots capable of taking bends
6. Powered Exoskeletons for support of knees/hips
7. Micro robots (6 cm or below)
The programme has a great significance on the learning exploration of STEM students as it involves working on new and innovative idea, preparing a solid proof of concept and finally to develop the proto-type robot in 7 different robot making category. This is a very good process of robot making which has a great market value in terms of new startups and entrepreneurship among the students in the state and prototype models of robots will be displayed at the Robotic Gallery in Science City and the Regional Science Museums. Hence the process has also the potential of design and development of new robots as an exhibit in an indigenous manner and to promote the present campaign of Vocal for Local.
The Robofest Gujarat 2.0 competition was announced on Engineers Day and GUJCOST is presently receiving the ideation stage entries."

Web conference was organized with the agenda to discuss the way forward on the theme and subtheme of NCSC 2020. The theme of the NCSC is “Science for sustainable living”. Five subthemes have been decided which include 1. Ecosystem for sustainable living, 2. Traditional Knowledge system for sustainable living, 3. Design development, modelling and planning for sustainable living, 4. Appropriate technology for sustainable living and 5. Social innovation for sustainable living. The web conference was held with CSC district coordinators, State coordinator and State Academic Coordinator

"GUJCOST in association with NCSTC (YASH-2020) conceptualized special outreach programme on COVID19 pandemic with series of virtual interactive sessions on combating COVID-19 pandemic situation post Lockdown for a safe and normal life. The aim of this orientation and training is to create awareness about best safe practices to safeguard ourselves and those around us from the corona virus. This program will help to understand the complexity of the pandemic situation and to adopt appropriate measure for its prevention. GUJCOST with the help of medical expert generated audio visual resource material on module like Living with Corona, Mask Etiquette, Home quarantine and FAQs. The awareness caimpaign will be carried out with the help of wide spread network of Community Science Centre in all district of the state. The programme was launched on 31st July, 2020 by Shri Hareet, Shulka, IAS, Secretary, Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of Gujarat in presence of Dr. Manoj Patairiya, Head NCSTC, Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and Dr. Vinay Kamble, Former Advisor, Vigyan Prasar."

In order to promote the Industry-Academia Collaborations under the theme of Vocal for Local, a Webinar on Coronaviruses Protective Physicochemical Sciences and Technology Using Borosil Mansingh Survismeter was jointly Organized by School of Chemical Sciences, Central University of Gujarat and Gujarat Council on Science & Technology, Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of Gujarat. GUJCOST believes that the future of development lies in research and commercialization of IPR. Finding solutions for social needs have been a real backbone of science and technology through transfer of laboratory research to industries. The Survismeter technology has been transferred to Borosil Limited and it sets an example of vocal for local, as the invention as well as industry both are local. The new state of art invention is validated through new and intensified laboratory experiments for establishing the precision, accuracy, reproducibility and resolution within statistical standards.

"This workshop was organized with a concept of digital learning and wellbeing, where a healthy relationship with technology as well as its user-friendly methodology have to be considered. Amidst the increasing use of technology by our teachers and students it is important to train the teachers on the concept of digital learning and wellbeing i.e. to have a healthy relationship with technology and the teaching learning methodology. Four webinars were organized on 3rd, 10th ,17th, 24th and and 30th of June. Each webinar was attended by 50-60 teachers. The teachers were grouped for each of the session based on the region of Gujarat. So teachers of North Gujarat and Kutch, followed by those of South Gujarat, and then Central Gujarat and finally teachers from Saurashtra region attended the conference. Each session was of 3.5 hours and was taken by experts from Learning link Foundation. The Learning Links Foundation has corporate partnership in Google, Intel, Dell and Government partners in GCERT and SCERT is a non-profit organization. It was an educational and skilling program for Digital Wellbeing. The program was completely interactive. First of all the teachers introduced themselves and then contributed their ideas as well during the webinar. Teachers with experience of a single year to as high as 15 years participated in the event.

In order to raise awareness and understanding on Biodiversity, Gujarat Council on Science & Technology (GUJCOST) will celebrate World Environment Day on 5th June, 2020. The theme of World Environment Day 2020 is "Celebrate Biodiversity". The celebration will be virtual on account of COVID19 crisis. GUJCOST organized an online competition on the theme of Time For Nature. Webinar on Nature conservation, Online Quiz on Environment was organized to engage student and encourage to check their knowledge on importance of this day. Various online contest was organized where students showcase their creativity in slogan writing, drawing, short video making on their efforts to save environment. More than 100 students actively participated in the event.

"The current pandemic situation has established a completely new culture of defining problem statement, doing research and innovation. For the common citizens, it is very necessary to receive right type of communication and information which will be practiced by them for their safety and wellbeing. In order to engage, educate and entertain the children and community members at large during this lockdown period, the National Council on Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of India in collaboration with the Gujarat Council on Science & Technology (GUJCOST) and Gujarat Science City had organized special webinar sessions on Science Communications in the time of COVID 19 during 10th – 16th May 2020. Eminent experts including Dr. Manoj K Pattairiya, Advisor and Head, NCSTC, Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, Dr. Debapriya Dutta, Advisor and Head, Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development (SEED) and State S&T Councils Program, (SSTP) Division, Dept of Science & Technology, DST, Govt of India, Prof. Man Singh, Dean of Chemical Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Prof. C. G. Joshi, Director, Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC), Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of Gujarat, Dr. M. Ravi Kumar, Director General, Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of Gujarat, Dr. Kannan Srinivasan, Director, Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar and Dr. B.K. Tyagi, Scientist F, Vigyan Prasar conducted seven webinars on interesting topics. The Science Communication webinar sessions were held from 10.00 hrs to 11.00 hrs every day from 10th May to 16th May 2020. It was hosted on the GSWAN server with Adobe Connect platform. Earlier, GUJCOST has received the registrations of interested students, teachers, researchers, science communicators, media members and other interested persons for the participation in the webinars. A total of 4169 participants from all across the country registered for the webinar sessions The webinar sessions serve as an appropriate platform and methodology to share the scientific facts, figures, news and views among the citizens in an interactive and interesting way. "

"GUJCOST organised a webinar on Citizen Science for understanding from virus to valuable communication and learning experiences during lockdown period. During this webinar series, a total of six sessions were organised on different themes. The program aimed to engage the students, teachers as well as other interested persons who were under the lockdown situation. As it was the first webinar, GUJCOST started this series with its in-house members as follows: Dr. Narottam Sahoo, Advisor & Member Secretary, GUJCOST had the opening session on the topic, COVID 19 Pandemic Learning from Science and Society on 27th April 2020. Dr. Poonam Bhargava, Principal Scientific Officer, GUJCOST conducted a session on the 28th April 2020 on the topic, World of Virus. Dr. Sumit Vyas, Project Director, Regional Science Museum, had a session on 29th April 2020 on the topic Learning from Home, Digital way. Dr. Girish Goswami, Project Director, Regional Science Museum, Bhavnagar conducted a session on 30th April 2020 on the topic Disease Defence. Dr. Sumit Shastri, Project Director, Regional Science Museum, Patan conducted a session on 1st May 2020 on the topic social distancing and social media. Dr. Payal Pandit, Scientific Officer (R&D), GUJCOST conducted a session on 2nd May 2020 on the topic Plasma Physics for sterilization and densification. The webinar was hosted on GSWAN server with Adobe Connect programme. A total of 25,500 students, teachers, science communicators participated the webinars and got them engaged during the challenging period"

"GUJCOST in association with Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT), organised a webinar series from 6 12 April 2020 under the title, “Stay Home, Enjoy Physics”. The session was conducted every day for about one hour by an eminent faculty in Physics. The session was followed by presentation and question answer session. It also covered the topic of entrepreneurship and start-ups in physics along with its scopes and methodologies. About 450 plus students, Research Scholars, faculty members of physics from 12 states and 2 UTs registered for this 7daysthis 7-day online lecture series and actively participated in the programme. "