General

Amity University Madhya Pradesh organized a five day Inspire Internship Programme from 19-23 January 2015. The aim of the programme was to encourage the brilliant young minds to the study of basic sciences and technology at an early stage and select R&D as a career. The programme was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India, New Delhi. The bar of eligibility for the students participants was fairly high, with students scoring more than 95 percent marks in ICSE or A1 grade in CBSE or 84.5 percent marks in MP Board in 10th class were eligible to participate. Approximately 200 students from 11 different schools of Gwalior participated in the events. The science teachers from various schools also participated in this INSPIRE Science Camp.

Inaugural Session and First Day : 19 January 2015

The Inaugural session started with traditional lighting of lamp and Saraswati Vandana. Inaugurating the programme, Hon'ble Vice Chancellor, AUMP Lt Gen VK Sharma, AVSM (Retd) delivered the opening remarks and presented the importance of INSPIRE to the student participants. Dr.W. Selvamurthy, President (Honorary)-Amity Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation (ASTIF) and Chair Professor for Life Sciences, Amity University was the Chief Guest and key note speaker of the seminar. He delivered the keynote address on objectives of the science based research. He stressed that in order to improve the quality of life and combat hunger and diseases, the future researchers need to develop the next generation products and technologies, which can be achieved only by research in basic sciences. Dr. Selvamurthy encouraged and motivated the students to do what they love and enjoy a better living. He viewed that wonders can be achieved only by combining talent, technical skills, logical minds through proper human interfaces. Prof. (Dr.) S.G. Deshmukh, Director, ABV-IIITM, Gwalior was the Guest of Honour of the Inaugural Function.He delivered the address on “Nature Inspired Innovations”, he motivated students to observe and use nature’s design principles to innovate and learn to adapt. Next Mentor of session was Prof. R. K. Singh, Senior Principal Scientist and Deputy Director, Division of Toxicology CSIR – CDRI Lucknow. He motivated the audience through his talk on ”Safety Assessment of a New Male Anti fertility Injection- RISUG in India for 21^st Century”. In Post lunch session, the students were inspired by mentor Dr.R.K. Sharma from Department of Mathematics, IIT New Delhi, by his lecture on “Mathematics in Daily life”. Emphasizing on role of symmetry, while playing with numbers and fundamentals of coding and decoding, he gave the tricks of solving puzzles to he participants. The last mentor of first day was Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee Scientist, Dr. Amitabha Mukhopadhyay of National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi. He emphasized on the need to understand the biology of pathogens and develop a defence systems, which will destruct the pathogens like bacteria and virus on entering the human body. He motivated the students to take up careers in “Cell Biology” by presenting various perspectives and challenges. He focused on these perspectives through examples, and demonstrated the same through the hands- on -session.

Second Day : 20 January 2014

The second day of the INSPIRE Internship Programme started with the welcome and felicitation of the Mentor Prof. (Dr.) R.S. Tomar, Professor and Head, Amity Institute of Biotechnology and Dean Academics, Amity University Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior. He delivered a talk on“Biodiversity and its consequences”. He stressed on the role of biotechnology in maintaining the biodiversity and motivated students to work to develop biotechnology for the sake of society.

The next mentor of the day was Prof. (Dr) S.P.Bajpai, Dean Research, Amity University Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior. He addressed the participants on the topic “Environment and its challenges”. In his address he proposed various counter measures to protect the environment for a better tomorrow. He made students realize their role in maintaining the environment. The next mentor of the session was Prof. D.L. Sapra, Professor, Amity School of Science and Technology, Amity University Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior. In his lecture titled, “Science Technologies and Growth” he stressed on development of concepts through observation. He captivated the audience by number of practical examples and demonstrations. Post lunch session began with the Inspiring lecture on” Science and Innovation“ by Prof.(Dr.) Pankaj Shrivastava from Department of Physics, ABV-IIITM, Gwalior. He stressed on the need to develop the potential brains to think and innovate for the beneficial development of society. In the last session of second day Prof. Joydeep Dhar, Department of Applied Mathematics, ABV-IIITM, Gwalior, presented a motivating lecture on “Fascinating Mathematical World” wherein he emphasized on importance of mathematical modeling for quantification of any observation.

Third Day : 21 January 2015

The third day of the INSPIRE Internship Programme started with the welcome and felicitation of the Mentor Dr.M. Boopathi, Scientist-E, DRDE, Gwalior. He delivered a talk on “Defence against Chemical Warfare”, while motivating the participants to take up careers in science and research. The next session was mentored by eminent Professor of Physiology, Dr.H.N. Mallick, from AIIMS, New Delhi. He delivered a talk on “Discovering:The secrets of sleep”. Grappling with sleep's mystery and its insights, Dr. Mallick motivated the students towards the study of brain science and inspired them to be clear and precise in questioning the problem. He asked the students to think simple and develop a habit of digging throughout the studies, which may lead to research. The post lunch session was mentored by Dr.G S Sodhi from Deptt. of Chemistry & Forensic Science, SGTB Khalsa College,Delhi University, delivered a talk titled “How Forensic Chemistry helps in Combating Crime”, He presented the various perspectives of figure print development techniques, which can detect even the faintest finger prints clear and sharp. His talk was followed by the most exciting hands-on sessions on “Forensic Science”.

Fourth Day : 22 January 2015

The Fourth day of INSPIRE Internship Programme started with the written science screening test for Quiz competition among the bright interns. The Quiz test was conducted under the active supervision of Dr. Iti Roychowdhury, Dy.Director-ASCENT of Amity University Madhya Pradesh and her team to shortlist the top eight participants for oral quiz session scheduled for the next day. The next session was mentored by Dr. B.S. Dwarakanath Scientist-D, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Science, New Delhi, who delivered an inspiring talk on “Ionising Radiations: Friends or Foe of the Mankind”. He motivated the students to take up the challenges of the research for developing applications of radiation technology. The post-lunch session was a field visit to DRDE, Gwalior, wherein the participants visited various high-tech research labs, such as Synthetic Chemistry Lab, Vector Management Division, Microbiology Division,Discovery Centre, Viriology Lab and so on. The students were overwhelmed with the practical exposure and were bubbling with energy while interacting with the eminent scientists of DRDE throughout the visit.

FifthDay : 23 January 2015

The Fifth day of INSPIRE Internship Programme started with the felicitation of Dr. Ajay, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Roorkee. He inspired the students through the “Life achievements of Sir C.V.Raman and Raman Effects”. He inspired the students by tracing Sir C.V Raman’s scientific journey. This session was followed by the oral quiz session conducted by Dr. Vinod Bhatt, Amity University Madhya Pradesh. In this quiz, student of Army Public School Master Abhay Singh and student Jayesh Chaurasia from Ebenezer Higher Secondary won the first prize.

Valedictory Function : 23 January 2015

The programme ended with the Valedictory Ceremony which began with the traditional lighting of lamp and Saraswati Vandana. Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, AUMP Lt. Gen. V.K.Sharma, AVSM (Retd) presided over the function. Prof. Avinash Chandra Pandey, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi was the Chief Guest. In the valedictory address, Esteemed Chief Guest Prof. Pandey presented the facts about Nano-Technology with numerous examples. In his concluding remarks, the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Amity University Madhya Pradesh Lt. Gen. V.K. Sharma asked the students to understand the fundamental concepts of science, so that the accepted theories can be challenged by future researchers. He strongly advised the students to work very hard to innovate and to take up new challenges in the field of science research and development. The winners of the quiz competition were given prizes by the Hon’ble Chief Guest and Guest of Honour. The Hon’ble Vice Chancellor felicitated the principals of the participating schools by offering mementos and participation certificate to the students. The vote of thanks was proposed by the Programme Coordinator of INSPIRE Internship Programme-2015 Prof. (Dr) Bikram K. Bahinipati of Amity University Madhya Pradesh. Student, Members from print and electronic media along with the faculty members of Amity University Madhya Pradesh were present on the occasion.

Feedback

The participants of the Inspire Internship Programme have been provided an opportunity to evaluate the infrastructural capacity of the organizing institute, boarding, lodging and logistics, interactive talks delivered by the mentors, practical demonstrations/ hands-on experience, scientific discussions with the mentors and the overall impact of the inspire Internship Camp. Theprogramme was well appreciated by the participants from all the schools, whichis clear from the intern’s feedback report. Approximately 68 percent of thestudents termed the programme as “Outstanding”, 23 percent termed the programmeas “Very Good” and the 9 percent termed the programme as “Good”.