The city will see an influx of students and teachers from across the country later this week as part of the India International Science Festival.
The third edition of the festival will be held from Friday at various venues, including the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Anna University, Central Leather Research Institute, National Institute of Ocean Technology and the Structural Engineering Research Centre-SERC.
As many as 15 events, including a special session on women entrepreneurship and one for non-governmental organisations involved in promoting science, have been planned, Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology, said here on Sunday.
The aim of the festival is to raise awareness about science among schoolchildren and sensitise them to the government’s flagship programmes, such as Digital India, Make in India and Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat, he said.
Meeting of Ministers
The festival will begin with a meeting of science and technology Ministers from several countries, including Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal. The event will be held at IIT-Madras.
A special event will showcasing the solutions offered by student scientists in deep ocean research. “We have identified some problems and the students have come up with solutions. Their experiments will be presented. This has been exclusively designed for the students of Tamil Nadu,” an official said.
Around 1,000 students from 20 city schools will participate in a mass exercise to isolate DNA from papaya fruits in an effort to get placed in the Guinness Book of Records. A total of 100 innovative technologies from several States would be displayed at the grassroots innovators’ summit. With a special focus on the northeast, 125 teachers have been invited to participate in a science teachers’ workshop, M. Rajeevan, secretary, said.
Student competitions would be held at the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, the Minister said.
