The Last Airbender

The two mega projects of IIST mingle finally with the "Demo of The Week" coming under the aegis of the Physics Club. The first DftW organised by the Physics Club was on the Bernoulli Principles. The 2009 batch students with the supervision of Akshay Pande and Ashish Sachan from 2009 batch, and under the guidance and brillant ideas of Dr. Umesh R. Kadhane, Asst. Professor Physics demonstrated some splendid experiments. The videos and pictures portray the enjoyment of the demonstrators and participants.

Ramiz Ahmad (Physical Science - 2008 Batch) on Fiber Optics

His talk was focused on developing a fiber optical humidity sensor.This sensor worked on the principle that the refractive index of some materials like hydrogels changes with the change in the humidity of the surrounding.His project showed that the particular complex film they chose was a highly promising material for humidity sensing.

Upgrades in the Armoury

With the activities of the Physics Club having increased and more envisaged, the Physics Club was finally formalized, with financial support from the institute. We now have an alloted fixed fund per semester for small scale student projects and one large scale project pre year/semester.

So all members of the physics club are encouraged to send in their ideas in formal abstracts to the club email ID : physics.iist@gmail.com. The abstracts will be selected by the faculties based on feasability and utility. Then you may form a small work group and give the details of the stages of the project and how it shall be developed. The funds will be allotted thereafter.

Also the Physics Club has been alloted a room in D2 Block of the institute. All activities of the Physics Club, including meeting and project lab. work shall be arranged in this room hereafter.

We also have plans to organise an Annual Physics Symposium at IIST, inviting students from diffeent college pursueing B.Tech or B.Sc courses to present their idea or exhibits on different topics.

Umesh R. Kadhane (Assistant Professor - Physics) on Dancing a Waltz with Fullerene

The first faculty speech on the Physics Club was flagged of by Umesh Sir with an attractive note - "Dancing a Waltz with Fullerene".

Harsh Agrawal (Aerospace - 2009 Batch) on Fractals - Self-symmetry and applications

After a lot of postponing and advancing the time and date due to the mid-tern examination, the presentation by Harsh Agrawal was finally delivered amidst a shortage of classrooms and a poultry audience due to last moment schedule changes.

However, speaking on a topic of his immense personal interest, Harsh delivered a very informative and well prepared show. The mathematical basis and varied definition of fractals; the commonly known fractals; eight queen problem; and most importantly, their appearances in our physical world - these were the topics the speech hovered on. In conclusion, the resemblance of Fractal and Chaos theory to that of a Grand Unified Theory was also looked into by the speaker. Harsh Agrawal also showed images of fractals that he himself programmed in Dev C++.

Though the crowd count didn't exceed two score and the projector couldn't be arranged for, the presence of 3 faculties - Anandamayee Tej Ma'am (Earth & Space Sc., Asso. Prof.), Murugesh S Sir (Physics, Assi. Prof.) and Narayanmurthy Sir (Physics, HOD) and their discussion proved valuable.

Akshay Kohli (Avionics - 2009 Batch) on Introduction to Antimatter

The Physics Club has made a step further in the process of being given an official status in the institution. Meanwhile, we had a talk on Antimatter by Akshay Kohli.

It's a human tendency to seek what he doesn't have. Here we seek for the thing which is opposite to us - the thing we can't come in contact with. What is so important in Antimatter? How is it special? The talk delved deep into the particle physics of the Quantum World and the various ongoing researches by many countries in this heading.

The session was graced by six faculty members who, along with some sixty members who were present, enjoyed their respective scoops of Antimatter.

 

Aritra Sarkar (Avionics - 2009 Batch) on Fingerprint of God

Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology shifts to its main campus at Valiamala, Kerala. So the Physics Club faced a few problems as the projectors were not installed. The presentation were handled by some dozen laptops individually running the slideshow.

The first session of the new semester started with a talk by Aritra Sarkar on a topic covering Architecture, Cosmology, Genetics, Music, Art, Psychology, Biology, Phyllotaxy as well as Mathematics. The Golden Ratio and its occurrence in the Universe - it is as if, wherever there is creation, there is Phi - the epitome of Beauty. The huge correlation of facts astounded the audience. Apart from The Golden Mean, a diversion into the World of Mathemagical Blackholes added to the number game.

The 2010 Batch had their first day in the Physics Club with about seventy students from the college attending the session adding another feather to our cap.