Khagol_113_January 2018

| KHAG L | No. 113 - JANUARY 2018 | 12 ThirtyMetre TelescopeWorkforce, Education, PublicOutreach andCommunicationsMeeting The annual meeting of the Thirty Metre Telescope Workforce, Education, Public Outreach and Communications (TMT WEPOC) board took place in Bengaluru, and was hosted by the IIA, during November 2 - 5, 2017. Samir Dhurde (IUCAA) was the organiser for this meeting, which sawpartner representatives fromall five countries joining in person or through the Skype, and discussing present and future issues of outreach and education efforts of the TMT project. He also conducted exposure visits to Hostkote TMT facility and Bangalore Planetarium for the board members. Some outreach programmes were also carried out during the TMT Science Forummeeting that took place in Mysuru, the following week. UNOOSAWorkshop As part of the Outreach Programme in IUCAA, Samir Dhurde attended the United Nations/ItalyWorkshop on the Open Universe initiative in Vienna, Austria, during November 20 - 22, 2017. He gave a presentation on Making Astronomy and Astrophysics Data More Accessible to Universities in India: The IUCAAModel. The participants of the workshop emphasized the importance of promoting the best practices and standards developed by the scientific community over the past decades, expressed their interest in advancing towards a more open and transparent sharing of scientific data, and highlighted the value of education in science as a prerequisite for the initiative. Regular Events The Public Outreach team has conducted 3 science toys workshops, 5 basic astronomy workshops, and 7 campus visits during October - December 2017, with reach to about 1,000 people. The shows of mobile planetarium (Taramandal) given toAgricultural Development Trust, Baramati were conducted for different remote village schools during November 14 - December 31, 2017. Their volunteers, trained by IUCAA, reached to about 45 schools, and 4,500 students. SecondSaturday Lecture/Demonstration December 16, 2017: Shrikant Pawar (NCCS-MCC) on Wonders of Microbiology.