150 High School Students Attend IIT Delhi's “Sci-Tech Spins” Lecture Series 2025

The much-awaited lecture series “Sci-Tech Spins” for high school students at IIT Delhi marked its beginning for the year 2025 with the first lecture titled “Earth’s Oceans: The Physics Behind Their Might” by Prof. Ritabrata Thakur, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Delhi. This initiative is a part of IIT Delhi’s mandate to bridge the gap between academia and society and promote curiosity and innovation.

The session was attended by around 150 high school students from government-aided and private schools. Of these, two-thirds were girls. The energizing session was marked by an impactful and interactive lecture addressing an enthusiastic batch of school students from classes 9 and 11.

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This talk was aimed at providing the students a preliminary exposure to the research areas of fluid dynamics and oceanography.

Prof. Thakur discussed the importance of the oceans in regulating the global weather and climate, and the techniques employed in oceanographic measurements including in-situ moorings, research cruises and remote sensing. He also discussed the fundamental governing equations of fluid dynamics and how they govern the atmospheric and oceanic flows around us and the forces that cause such motions.

Students were made aware that turbulence is one of the most important unsolved problems in classical physics and turbulent mixing is a crucial component of ocean and atmospheric dynamics: it helps in mixing temperature, salinity, and nutrients, which in turn helps in sustaining life forms at various places within and outside of the marine ecosystem.

The students also got a chance to interact with Prof. Thakur post the lecture in an informal setting.

While sharing his experience, Prof. Ritabrata Thakur said, “It was incredible engaging with high school students from various schools. The questions were probing and showed a high level of academic preparedness. It is always heartening to discuss science with excited and curious young minds.”

Organised on January 18, 2025, this was the first lecture of the “Sci-Tech Spins” series for the year 2025. The calendar for the upcoming monthly lectures will be announced through IIT Delhi‘s official social media handles.

Prof. Rahul Mishra, faculty coordinator, Sci-Tech Spins Lecture Series, said, “Our aim with this lecture series is to make the school students excited about research. Also to make them understand how what they are learning in school is applied in the real world. This year we aim to have lectures not only in the field of science and technology but also in other diverse fields like design, humanities, management, and policy making.”

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The lecture series is one of the many efforts underway by IIT Delhi to encourage the school students, especially girls, in STEM to pursue higher education in the area. The school students and the coordinators requested frequent sessions in the future to accommodate a greater number of students so they could experience IIT Delhi.