About 300 young science enthusiasts from about 20 institutes in the country took part in the two-day Science Fest organised by Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,Kolkata. Named 'Inquivesta 2011',the meet at Mohanpur campus in Nadia was inaugurated on Saturday by the Dean of Student Affairs,IISER Professor Soumitra Banerjee. Renowned 'Indian Ecology' Professor Raghavendra Gadagkar from IISC,Bangalore addressed the participants which was also marked by a workshop on science communication and journalism by Mohit Jolly from IIT Kanpur. The highlights of the meet were ScQ (Science Quiz),CSI (Crime Scene Investigation),Exzib (Science Exhibitions),Codathon (Programming Challenge),Rubix (Rubik Cube solving event) etc. "We are organising the event to celebrate the surprise elements of sciences," Rajarshi Roychowdhury,Festival Coordinator said. "This is the first of its kind Science Fest in Eastern India and rare in India," Dr. Ayan Banerjee,Assistant Professor of Optic lab,Dept. of Physical Sciences,IISER,Kolkata said. The KIT,Bhubaneshwar,IISER Bhopal,IIT Khargapur,NISER Bhubaneshwar,St. Xaviers College,Kolkata,Presidency College,Heritage Institute of Technology,ISERC,Shantiniketan,ISM Dhanbad attended the fest. IISER,Kolkata was the first of the IISERs set up in the country in 2006 by the Centre. The central theme of the IISER-K is to integrate education with research so that undergraduate teaching as well as doctoral and postdoctoral research work in theoretical as well as experimental sciences could be done symbiotically.
