34th Annual Report (2021-22)

95 Amruteshwar Arts, science, commerce college, Wizer - by Rupesh Labde on 8th September 2021 Nearly 200 students from Junior college attended this Science Toys demonstration. Abeda Inamdar Girls College, Pune - held virtually by Rupesh Labade on 23rd Demonstrations: A webinar on the “First Five Years of Gravitational-wave Astronomy” was presented live by Prof. Archana Pai (Associate Professor, IIT-Bombay) as part th of the World Space Week on 9 October 2021. This was organised by the Mumbai Chapter of the National Space Society Webinar on “First Five Years of Gravitational-wave Astronomy” by Prof. Archana Pai th for World Space Week - 9 October 2021 A variety of new engaging articles were published in the Gravity Matters blog on the L I GO- I nd i a webs i t e a t www . l i go - india.in/gravitymatters/. under different sections of the Gravity Matters blog. Some of the highlights include podcasts by distinguished gravitational wave personalities like Prof. Sanjeev Dhurandhar and Prof. Tarun Souradeep, SciArt posters for the NSBH discovery, various GWscience articles fromGW scientists from across the world, Behind-the-Scenes interviews with GWresearchers and students. SOCIAL MEDIA INVOLVEMENT September 2021 A total of 400 students of 12th Standard and 6 teachers attended this Science Toys session. Sacred Heart School, Kalyan - online Science Toys demo by Rupesh Labade on 27th September 2021 for the 120 students of 9th grade. Tirupati Highschool, Satara - by Rupesh Labade on 30th September 2021. 200 students from 5th to 10th Standard attended this session online, covering the topicUse of Mobile Apps for sky observation. LIEPO ACTIVITIES In the “Behind the Scenes” category which delves into the daily lives of gravitational- wave science researchers, LIEPO published a video interview of Dr Nikhil Sarin - a postdoctoral fellow fromMonash University working on various aspects of gravitational- wave multi-messenger astronomy. Along with the webpage, it was also posted on LIEPO's YouTube channel and has been th viewed more than 330 times to date. The 8 episode of the "Listening to the Cosmos" podcast series, which features international speakers talking about GWScience, was published. This episode presented Prof. Anna Watts (Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam), winner of the AAS HEAD (High Energy Astrophysics Division) mid-career prize in conversation with Debarati Chatterjee (Chairperson of LIEPO and creator/ coordinator of the GravityMatters blog). LIGO-India EPO organised a live talk by Prof. Parameswaran Ajith from ICTS Bangalore th on 17 August 2021 to commemorate the anniversary of GW170817 - the first observation of gravitational waves from the collision of two neutron stars by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. The Live talk “Dawn of Multimessenger Astronomy!” by Prof. Parameswaran Ajith - GW170817 anniversary celebrations TALKS ANDWEBINARS talk targeted both the general public and graduate/ postgraduate students and covered what this rare astronomy event has taught us and how it was not only detected in gravitational waves but also seen in light by dozens of telescopes on the ground and in space thereby giving rise to the new domain of Multi-messenger Astronomy. In the end, the viewers had the opportunity to ask questions, many of which were answered by Prof. Ajith. The event was coordinated by Prof. Debarati Chatterjee and executed by Vaibhav Savant. Pai spoke about the exciting research and findings from the first direct detection of gravitational waves from an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) to the recently detected gravitational-wave event nicknamed GW190521. The event was held online on the Zoomplatformfor undergraduate and postgraduate students of Engineering and Pure Science backgrounds. Around 150 students participated in the webinar. Ankit Bhandari assisted in setting up thewebinar.