12 students chosen for Mars programme

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 23. India's 12 finalists, the international semi- finalists, for the international student scientist programme of the Red Rover Goes To Mars (RRGTM) programme were selected at the ISRO Satellite Centre here on Wednesday. The RRGTM programme is organised by the International Planetary Society in coordination with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The names of the 12, including four from Bombay and one from Bangalore, were announced at the valedictory of the first phase of the selection for the RRGTM at the country level.

Mr. L.M. Gangrade, Head of Projects, ISAC, presented a report on how the students were selected in India.

Students were asked to fill out a questionnaire in the preliminary round. Of the 10,000 students who responded to the questionnaire, 2,000 were selected through a normalisation process for the next open essay round.

Each student wrote a 1,500-word essay on the Mars Surveyor Lander 2001 mission. Of the 2,000 essays that reached the various regional centres, 200 were forwarded to the national centre, which coordinated the efforts. Of these, 37 semi- finalists were invited to make a presentation on their essays before a panel of seven judges. Out of these semi-finalists, 20 students moved on to the personal interview round and finally 12 students were selected to represent India in the international contest which will start in October.

The students were selected in three categories - sophomore (born between January 31, 1989 and January 31, 1991), junior (born between January 31, 1987 and January 31, 1989) and senior (born between January 31, 1984 and January 31, 1987). The 12 Indian finalists included two sophomores, five juniors and five seniors.

They are: Arvind Jayashankar and Vikas. S (sophomores); Manu Shashidharan Madhav, Miheer Ranjan Pathare, Swaroop V. George, Tanmay Sanjay and Vivek Krishnamurthy Iyer (juniors); Bala Priyadarshini, Gaurav Mohanty, Jagannathan Prashanth, Shaleen Rajendran and Shyam Ajit Kapadia (seniors).

The seven-member judges panel, headed by Prof. J.C. Bhattacharya, former Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, included Prof. N. Bhandari of the Physics Research Laboratory, Pune, Dr. V.A. Thomas of the ISAC, Bangalore, Dr. Sreedhara Murthy, Scientific Secretary, ISAC, Dr. Arvind Paranjape of the IUCAA, Dr. Vasundhara Raju of the IIA, and Dr. Shylaja of the Nehru Planetarium.

Each of the 37 semi-finalists, and the 12 finalists was given a cash award, a memento and a certificate.

In the next phase of the selection process, the 12 essays of the finalists would be forwarded to the International Planetary Society.

In October, each of the Indian finalists would face a telephonic interview with an international panel from the Planetary Society. Those selected would get a chance to visit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and participate in the RRGTM Student Scientist and Student Astronaut programmes.

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