J&K HED organizes Int’l Webinar from NASA, JPL, California

Jammu: An International webinar was Wednesday organized live from NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California, USA by Jammu and Kashmir Higher Education Department on the theme “Interaction with NASA Scientist: career opportunities and 21st century skills” by Dr. Vishal Sharma, Fulbright Climate Fellow, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA, here under the patronage of Talat Parvez Rohella, Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education.
The webinar aimed at providing awareness regarding career opportunities and various skills required for students/research scholars/faculty at National and International level. It was attended by over 7000 participants from 30 countries in the age group ranging from 7 years to 70 years.
Commissioner Secretary Higher Education, Talat Parvez Rohella, was the Chief Guest and Dr. Gautam Chottapaudya, Senior Scientist NASA, JPL, California, USA was the special guest/resource person on the occasion.
Talat Parvez Rohella, in his inaugural address, stressed on the need for holding such events regularly and stated that it would increase the awareness among the students and will help them to think critically in their future endeavor. He further informed the audience that higher education department is embarking on various infrastructure development programs and has initiated various research, academic development schemes and is contemplating to take various initiatives for welfare of students in tune with the new education policy. He welcomed the resource person and stated that his interaction with students will have a lasting effect on them and the learning process on them.
Dr. Vishal Sharma, introduced Dr. Goutam Chottapaudya and other dignitaries (Dr. Sanjay Khajuria from SKUAST Jammu and Manpreet Singh from Microsoft, USA) to the audience. He said Dr. Goutam has been responsible for actually building and developing technologies that has enabled NASA to send astronauts into space.
Dr. Gautam, in his address, narrated his journey from a modest family background to the present position of a top scientist. He also shared his experience of coping up with stress during his journey of becoming the world’s leading scientist.
The participants had purposeful interaction with the resource person. The inquisitive participants raised various questions involving existence of aliens, space, blackhole, life beyond earth, humans on planet Mars etc.
All the questions were very well enlightened by Dr. Goutam with his satisfactory answers.
Various issues such as skills that young generation must acquire to survive in this challenging time were also discussed in the webinar. In his concluding remarks Dr. Goutam said he is overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the young minds and expressed his willingness to take another session only for answering their questions.
The Students can access the recorded webinar at www.facebook.com/talktoascientist/
The webinar was anchored by Dr. Vishal Sharma and Dr. Sanjay Khajuria, Senior Scientists, SKUAST- Jammu presented the vote of thanks.