A bit of guitar-strumming and crooning, a blindfolded contestant, something that could be mistaken for paper craft, and finger puppets…the South India finals of the first Fame Lab organised by the British Council in the country had everything that makes it one of the most-popular science communications competitions in the world.
Organised in association with the University of Kerala and the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment, the competition saw 150 entries from across the region from institutions such as IIT, Madras; IISc, Bengaluru; NIT, Trichy; and so on. Of them, 30 selected participants faced off earlier on Wednesday. And then, the final 10 contestants took to the stage to present their innovative ideas in less than three minutes each.
The first prize in the competition went to Prabahan Chakraborty, who is doing his PhD at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.
He talked about his phobia of Maths to explain associative learning, and how understanding the science behind it would help solve problems such as anxiety disorders. The mode of presentation won Prabahan loud cheers.
Rini Sharon, research scholar at IIT Madras, bagged the second prize for her presentation on how aurally and visually challenged people communicate using their hands by touching people’s faces to identify nasal sounds, voicing, and place of articulation.
Gayathri Shankar who is pursuing her M.Sc. in Chemistry at MG College here bagged the third position. In her presentation, she dwelt on the dangers posed by plastics. The top three winners will compete at the India finals to be held in Pune in January.
Continental shifting
A presentation on continental shift by Iain Stewart, Professor, Plymouth University, followed.
Umesh Kadhane of IISST here, Shubhra Priyadarshini of Nature India, and Deepshikha Jaiswal Nagar of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research adjudged the participants.