Foundation Week 2022

The Foundation Week 2022 was celebrated to mark the second anniversary of the Physics Society, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, from 23 to 31 January 2022. Several events and a symposium were conducted throughout the week. The activities reached more than about 6,500 people through social media with a total of 26.4 thousand impressions, and around 320 participants from different institutes actively participated in various activities. The hon’ble Director of our institute, Prof J N Moorthy, inaugurated the celebrations. He appreciated the organisers' efforts in conducting the activities throughout the year, highlighting the importance of such activities in the overall development of the active environment at the institute.

Symposium

Three awardees of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize delivered online webinars spanning broad domains of physics. More than 200 participants, including faculty from IISER TVM, attended the lectures. On 25th January 2022, Dr Kanak Saha spoke about the extreme-UV photons from the AstroSat UV Deep Field. He described the transformation of the universe from a neutral state to an ionized one and how UV photons are believed to be responsible for this. He also reported the first discovery of a high-redshift galaxy emitting extreme UV photons. On 27th January 2022, Dr Aninda Sinha delivered a webinar about quantum field theory without Feynman diagrams. He spoke about the bootstrap approach that was formulated in the 1960s but has been popularised over the last decade. He also discussed how century-old mathematics relying on the so-called Bieberbach conjecture gives rise to constraints on low energy physics arising from the S-matrix Bootstrap. Dr Aditi Sen De presented the third webinar held on the 30th January 2022. She spoke about recent developments in quantum technology. She talked about revolutionary inventions in the field of quantum communication and computation and a few results in quantum technology design.


Hackathon

Hackathon is an event where a large number of participants engage in computer programming. A hackathon based on atmospheric and climate science was organized on 29th January 2022, under the guidance of Dr Anand Narayan Sarma. The questions involved predicting carbon dioxide levels throughout 2022, calculating the average ocean temperature, and finding correlations between different climate markers using real-world data. It required very basic programming skills to participate and consisted of questions that could be solved with a preliminary understanding of Data Science. The hackathon was held over Discord, and registration was free as well as open to everyone. A total of 30 teams from across India registered for the hackathon, which included teams from prestigious institutes like Chennai Mathematical Institute, Vellore Institute of Technology, North-Eastern University, BMS College of Engineering, and IISER Pune. The participants were briefed on the rules, and the problem statements were shared. They were given 6 hours to solve the questions and submit their solutions. The deadline for the answer submission was 4:30 pm, but it was postponed by 30 minutes due to a high volume of requests for extension. The best five teams were asked to present their solution, and questions were asked by Dr Sarma and other participants. The top three teams were then declared. First position: Winter-Coders (Aparajita Sen, Shakul Awasthi — IISER TVM) Second position shared by: Protocol112 (Krishna Kumar, Gaurav Seal, Ashutosh Kumar — IISER TVM) Theja and Comrades (Sijil, Abhinand, Amjad — IISER TVM) Many participants applauded the organisers for the quality and instructive nature of the questions. They expressed their interest to take part in similar events in the future.


eSports - Space Race to Duna

In the game, players direct a nascent space program, staffed and crewed by green humanoid aliens known as "Kerbals". The game features a realistic orbital physics engine, allowing for various real-life orbital manoeuvres such as Hohmann transfer orbits and orbital rendezvous. The objective of the game was kept simple. Each team had to build a look spacecraft and fly it to a planet named DUNA, representing our real-life Mars. Registration was open to everyone from 21st to 24th January. Tutorials for installing the game, basic controls, and a model launch were given to registered participants. A total of 41 teams registered for the contest. This included teams from IIT Kharagpur, IISER Mohali, IISER Pune, IISER Bhopal, IGDTUW New Delhi, UBKV West Bengal, etc. 13 teams were able to land their spacecraft successfully. Two teams with the least cost were chosen as winners and runners-up.
  1. First Prize: Jebediah Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. (Mugilan B, Devanand Mallayya M, Bala Surya S — IISER TVM)
  2. Second Prize: TheMathematicalGamers (Samanwaya Patra, Agni Keyoor Purani — IIT Kharagpur)


Boltzmann Brains 3.0

This event was the third iteration of the PSI(T) quizzing competition. It was held on 26 January 2022 and hosted by Rohit V Menon and Shivam Bhargava. Seventy-eight people joined the quiz and submitted answers via Google Forms.
  1. First Prize: Chitale Bandhu (Siddharth Bhatt, Kartik Bhide — IISER TVM)
  2. Second Prize: Venki (S Goureesankar, Dayona Varghese — IISER TVM)
  3. Third Prize: proz (Anukrithi K, Koushik Krishna — IISER TVM


Volunteers

Faculty Coordinators

  1. Dr Joy Mitra
  2. Dr Vinayak Kamble


Student Volunteers

  1. Aadi Chaturvedi
  2. Arjun Kannan
  3. Adam Zacharia Anil
  4. Akhila S
  5. Eeswar Krishnan N A
  6. Ephream Jude George
  7. Govindram Neware
  8. Jacob Cherry Sam
  9. Joshy K Oommen
  10. Kartik Bhide
  11. Ravikiran S Hegde
  12. Rithika Ganesan
  13. Rohit V Menon
  14. Sarthak Thorat
  15. Sharang Rajesh Iyer
  16. Shubham Tushar Chury
  17. Subrabalan Murugesan
  18. Goureesankar Sathyanath


Event Organisers

Hackathon

Guide: Dr Anand Narayan Sarma
Organisers
  1. Aadi Chaturvedi
  2. Arjun Kannan
  3. Kartik Bhide
  4. Ravikiran S Hegde
  5. Rithika Ganesan
  6. Rohit V Menon
  7. Sharang Iyer
  8. Subrabalan Murugesan
eSports
  1. Aadi Chaturvedi
  2. Govindram Neware
  3. Ravikiran S Hegde
  4. Rohit V Menon
  5. Shubham Tushar Chury
Boltzmann Brains 3.0
  • Rohit V Menon
  • Sarthak Thorat
  • Shivam Bhargava