To celebrate the occasion of International Moon's Day, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), School of Sciences, JC road campus - Department of Physics and Electronics in collaboration with the Society for Space Education, Research and Development (SSERD) hosted a public talk session on 20th July 2022. The guest speaker for the session was Dr. Kumar Krishen, Senior Scientist, Johnson Space Centre - NASA. Dr. Krishen was in Bengaluru as a part of a tour organized by SSERD which aims to talk to and inspire students and the public about space and NASA. The session was attended by more than 100 people including UG/PG students, PhD scholars, students from other colleges/institutions, in-house faculty, and the general public as well.
The event commenced with the lighting of the lamp and the invocation song. Dr. Asha Rajiv, Director, School of Sciences welcomed guest speaker Dr. Krishen and other members of the SSERD. She gave a brief overview of the University and its activities promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) through several workshops, seminars, outreach programmes, guest lectures, and other activities. Dr. Asha Rajiv was presented with goodies including a memoir by Dr. Krishen from his journey from India to NASA. The guest speaker began the session with a warm and enthusiastic address to the audience. During the first half of the session, he stressed the importance of technology in the field of space sciences. He highlighted different ideas on which NASA is currently working such as in the field of biological sciences, aviation, rocketry, astrophysics, and medical sciences. He shared how NASA is specifically working on the idea of settlements on the Moon and Mars, challenges associated with it and solutions that are being researched and under experiment. He tried to establish the correlation between different domains and their significance in the pursuit of scientific progress.
In the second half of the session, Dr. Krishen discussed how he was designated to identify the new age technologies that would be part of different NASA projects in the future. He shared how he systematically identified 31 interesting tech ideas that would revolutionize the world and play a crucial role in solving many problems on earth as well as help overcome difficulties involved in space travel and space settlements. He briefly discussed a handful of top ideas that he prioritized based on several merit points.
The guest speaker filled the space talk session with information by sharing some facts and images from his gallery. Moving towards the end, Dr. Krishen shared his experiences on how his dream came true after many years. He spoke about his dreams, persistence and continuous efforts in achieving his goals which ignited the minds of the students in the audience. Later, in the question and answer session students asked umpteen numbers of questions related to space science, astronauts, space settlements, dark energy, and dark matter, among many others.
The space talk wrapped up with a vote of thanks. Dr. Krishen left the campus overwhelmed and thrilled with a promise of visiting again and probable opportunities for JAIN (Deemed-to-be University) to collaborate with him on his projects.
