Asian Science camp brings together young minds, experts

BENGALURU: Hossam Alaa, 17, from Egypt wants to win not one but two Nobel prizes and eventually discover cure for diabetes. Such ambitions are not uncommon among the participants of the 2016 Asian Science camp, currently under way at the Indian Institute of Science which has brought together the brightest young minds from 22 countries along with renowned scientists.
The seven-day camp aims at fuelling scientific curiosity and encouraging quality research among youngsters.The objective is to enable interaction and dialogue between speakers and students, who are mostly high school and college students aged between 17 and 20.
Abha Misra, convener of the camp, said the idea is to break away from the existing structure of most Science camps by focusing on collaboration and not competition, making learning the primary objective. "Most south-east Asian countries face similar problems of population growth, adverse environmental and climate impact and other developmental concerns. The idea is to expose them to different mindsets and ways of thinking by top scientific minds in the world, as well as fellow participants," she added.
Matar Melody Rosen, 18, from Israel wants to make a difference in the fields of politics, physics and engineering - an unusual combination. She had participated in a synthetic biology competition last year; she was part of a team that designed and built a bio-mechanism from scratch. "The experience has been fascinating. I'm constantly learning so much that I make a note of the things I don't understand and look it up later. I enjoyed the lecture by IIT-Bombay professor Anil Kumar who explained complex ideas in an appealing way."
Prof Ajay Sood, Physics professor at IISC and Fellow of the Royal Society of London, said the flexible format of the camp is designed to inspire students in the most effective way by keeping communication open between speakers and students. "Its boring for students to sit in a classroom and just listen to one person talk. There's sufficient time for students here to take in the information and ask questions," he added.