Khagol # 125 - Jan 2020 - Eng & Hindi

| KHAG L | No. 125 - JANUARY 2021 | 03 Astronomy Centre for Educators The thirteenth RadioAstronomyWinter School (RAWS – 2020) was organized online jointly by IUCAA and NCRA- TIFR, during December 28, 2020 – January 9, 2021. There were well over 600 applicants, of which 50 were selected to participate via Zoom, and the rest could listen via YouTube. In addition to the presentations and tutorials and discussion sessions on various topics related to radio astronomy, sometimes went on till late in the night, there were also carefully designed experiments, which the participants conducted in their homes. The experiments were done in 10 teams of 5 members each, including a teacher mentor in eachteam from different universities and colleges in the country. These experiments included a few which used mobile phones and laptops Teaching Learning Centre and National Resource Centre Radio Astronomy Winter School as transmitters and receivers of radio waves. The participants examined the variation of the signal with distance andeffects of attenuation along its path. They also explored the effects of using plane and corner reflectors on the received radio signals. They did an interesting experiment on the interference of radio signals received directly and also bouncing off a metal/aluminium reflector. This mimicked the early sea-cliff radio interferometer made during the 1940s in Australia. In addition, there were work sheets on radiometer basics and experiments involving analysis of data obtained from both the Ooty Radio Telescope, and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. Although, having a school with participants in the same physical space has its benefits, the online format opened uppossibilities of a participant from Brazil presenting work done by her team in India, and one from Bangladesh, all working together and interacting via the web. The teacher mentors worked very closely with the student participants. In addition to the presentations by the teams on the experiments they had done, a discussion on career opportunities in astronomy and astrophysics, and a quiz among the different teamswere held during the last two days. Eighteen resource persons from both IUCAA and NCRA-TIFR took part in the school. The core organizing group consisted of Ashish Mhaske, Avinash Deshpande, Dhruba J.Saikia, Jameer Manur, and Prakash Arumugasamy (all from IUCAA), and Ruta Kale and Subhashis Roy (both from NCRA-TIFR). Stanley Johnson, who has obtained his masters' and PhDdegrees in optical sciences from the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. He worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada; the National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi, USA; and the Centre d'optique, photonique et laser, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada. His research interests are in optical interferometry, spatial division multiplexing in fibre-optic telecommunication and high-speed digital signal processing for optics applications. He joined IUCAA in December 2020 as a Research Associate, which is funded by the QuEST programme of DST, Government of India, and would be working on developing ultra-stable narrow-linewidth lasers and dissemination through phase stabilized optical fibre.