Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 1: To spark interest in Science among the high school students, the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of St Joseph Engineering College (SJEC), Mangaluru, conducted a hands-on training session at Government High School (GHS), Attavar, Mangaluru, on September 23, 2021.

The main goal of the session was to raise awareness about how to use and assemble low-cost locally available materials to create experiments with light rays, lenses, and mirrors in addition to helping the students grasp the concepts of Optics and Photonics that are taught in Science classes at high schools.

This session was delivered by Dr Sheryl Colaco, professor in the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering along with Aaron Pinto and Steevan D’Souza, Electrical Engineering students from the Class of 2021. 30 students of Class9 and 10 at GHS, Attavar enthusiastically took part in this programme.

During the workshop, the participants learned the intricacies of putting together the components for the experiments involving Microscope, Infinity mirror, Light Scattering, Kaleidoscope, Reflection Experiment, Solar Applications, Series and Parallel Connection of Batteries.

Experiments listed above usually necessitate the use of specialised scientific equipment and tools. On the other hand, only a few rural Indian Government Schools have well-organized Science labs and scientific equipment’s. As a result, students in these school’s struggle to grasp scientific concepts. The objective of this workshop was to introduce these low-cost science experiments that can help high school students to better understand the concept of Optics and Photonics.

The programme was supported by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE-USA). The SPIE Education Outreach Grant-2020 had chosen SJEC as one of the 19 international winners in the world for the science project outreach proposal written by Dr Sheryl Grace Colaco, professor, department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at SJEC.