IRIS Training Camp held at KiiT International School on July 4

A training camp of the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) was inaugurated in KiiT International School on July 4, 2015. Eminent scientists including Prof. P. C. Sen, Bose Institute, Prof. Ashis Mohanty, OUAT, Dr. R. N. Ray, President, Odisha Children’s Science Congress, Prof. Shrinivasan and Usha Bhaskar, Intel graced the inaugural session.

Inaugurating the two-day camp, Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS said that knowledge is more important than degree and students should try to acquire more and more knowledge to excel in their respective field. Encouraging students to be innovative, he said, students should not entirely depend upon internet; rather they should use their own ideas. An Intel Hub was inaugurated by Dr. Samanta.

As many as 20 child scientists from 7 Eastern States of the country are participating in the camp. 18 groups will be screened at the KiiT-IS campus by a Scientific Review committee of eminent scientists. Dr. R.N. Ray, Dr. P.C. Sen, Prof Srinivasan and Prof. Bitenjaya will direct the projects from Eastern India to the National IRIS Exhibition in New Delhi.

The Inauguration will be done by the Hon. Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi. The child scientists selected from national level would be included in Team India and get a chance to participate in international engineering and science fair held in USA every year.

Besides, the selected students will participate in Jawaharlal Nehru National Science Exhibition for Children, an initiative of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT); National Children’s Science Congress, conducted by the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC); National Council of Science Museums (NCSM); CBSE Science Exhibition, for Central Board of Secondary Education schools across India (CBSE).

During this two-day programme, the scientists will review the projects of child scientists and give them training to improve their respective projects. Dr. Monalisa Bal, Chairperson of KiiT International School presided over the inaugural session.

IRIS is a research – based National Science Fair for students. Having begun as the Intel Science Talent and Discovery Fair in 1999, IRIS has been nurturing the spirit of innovation among school students in India since 2006. An admirable example of a public-private partnership, this is a nationwide initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Intel Education.