Khagol # 124 - Oct 2020

| KHAG L | No. 124 - OCTOBER 2020 | 11 AntennaDesignCompetition: SWANtenna– 2020 During the time of this pandemic, efforts were also being made by the Teaching Learning Centre of theAstronomy Centre for Educators, IUCAA, to either design and later build, or do experiments with equipment and/or software, which the participants have access to or may be available at their homes. One such initiative was the design of a low-frequency antenna for radio astronomical observations as part of the Sky Watch Array Network (SWAN), which started at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, by Avinash Deshpande (IUCAA). This competition titled SWANtenna – 2020, was announced inMay 2020, andwas open to teams of faculty members and students from across the country, with the possibility of teams being across institutions to promote inter-institutional collaboration. In an overwhelming response, over 35 teams, involving about 70 faculty members, who were mentors, and over 300 students, from across the country registered and worked during the four months, from June to September 2020, towards designing an antenna element with the desired specifications. WIPL-D, a Serbian firm specializing in EM simulation and software in the field of electromagnetism, generously provided free access to one of their software packages for all participants. Entries from 18 teams consisting of more than 150 participants reporting details of their completed antenna design and assessment of performance characteristics from simulations, have been received by the extendeddeadline of September 30, 2020. These are now being judged by a jury of leading antenna experts of the country, headed by Raghunath Shevgaonkar (Former Director, IIT, Delhi, and presently Vice-Chancellor, Bennett University), Subramaniam Ananthakrishnan (Former Dean, NCRA-TIFR, Pune, and presently at the Savitribai Phule Pune University), Ajit T. Kalghatgi (Former Director, R&D, BEL), Shiban Koul (Emeritus Professor, Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, IIT, Delhi), Surendra Pal (Professor Satish Dhawan Professor and Senior Adviser, Satellite Navigation Centre, ISRO), and K. P. Ray (Dean, DIAT). A set of promising designs will be short-listed for proto-type fabrication and tests. The SWANtenna competition was being coordinated by Avinash Deshpande, and other colleagues at TLC. Seminars (Online) 08.09.2020 Vaidehi Paliya on Jetted active galactic nuclei in the era of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. 17.09.2020 Kanak Saha on AstroSat detects az=1.42 galaxy emitting Lyman continuum photons.