Subhayan Sahu, Bachelor of Science (Research) student (2013–17), who received his degree at the Convocation on 5 July 2017, on his time at IISc There is an exceptional amount of historical weight associated with a student’s first visit to the hallowed campus of IISc. After all, this is where the brightest minds in Indian […]
Category: Campus Chronicles
The Open-Circuit Wind Tunnel
V Surendranath on the love of his life – the open-circuit wind tunnel at IISc – and how it has contributed to nation building V Surendranath is a Principal Research Scientist at the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Since he joined the Institute 27 years ago, he has been closely associated with the open-circuit wind tunnel […]
Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt and the Expansion of the Universe
When Schmidt found proof of accelerated expansion in the 1990s, he thought he had made a mistake Until recently, astrophysicists believed that gravity would slow down the expansion of the cosmos. This belief stemmed from the Newtonian understanding of gravity as a force of attraction: the falling apple and planets staying in orbit are standard […]
Having a ‘Green Open Day’ and Other Efforts Towards a Zero-Waste Campus
IISc Families and Friends (IFF) is a forum created to provide a platform for voluntary initiatives to work towards improving the quality of life for all those associated with IISc. A major endeavour of this organisation, started in early 2015, is to work for a “clean and green IISc”, which entails reusing and recycling all […]
Making Buildings Energy Efficient: Lessons from the Mechanical Engineering Auditorium
Jaywant Arakeri on how a scientific approach to architectural design can make our buildings greener Inaugurated in 2013, the auditorium in the Mechanical Engineering Department also serves as a classroom. What makes it unique is its design – energy efficient, yet sensitive to human comfort. The driving force behind this initiative was Jaywant Arakeri, Professor, […]
APC Lecture Series: How to Conserve Artefacts from Our Past
On 2 May, 2017, V Jeyaraj, Director, Hepzibah Institute of Heritage Conservation, Chennai, gave an in-depth introduction to the science of conservation of artefacts from our past. In his talk, he emphasised the importance of this activity, given the richness of our culture heritage. He also discussed the many different kinds of artefacts that museums […]
Students Shake a Leg, Using Folk Dance to Communicate Science
On 8 April 2017, undergraduate (UG) students from IISc performed Indian folk dances that communicated complex scientific ideas. The performances, which brought together the arts and sciences, were part of their humanities course Mapping India through the Folk Arts. The Saturday morning spectacle comprised six different dances, each of which was performed by a group […]
Helaine Selin on Happiness Across Cultures
Helaine Selin, a retired science librarian from Hampshire College, Massachusetts, USA, is an author and an editor of several books, such as Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astronomy, and Childbirth Across Cultures: Ideas and Practices of Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Postpartum. […]
APC Lecture Series: Thirteen Ways of Seeing
Venkat Srinivasan, an archivist from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), gave a talk as part of the APC Lecture series titled Thirteen Ways of Seeing, on 19 April 2017. Srinivasan presented a template to bring together historians, journalists, scientists, and the general public to build […]
Shubha Bhat Enjoys Hanging Out With Her Feathered Friends
Shubha Bhat’s early attempts to provide thirsty birds with water have now evolved into a sophisticated enterprise that draws dozens of species, both resident and migrant, to her yard When Shubha Bhat got married 18 years ago, she found herself living in Bangalore. But life in the big city was starkly different from what she […]