Khagol Bulletin # 131

Fig 7 During the International Astronomy Year 2009, a sequence of programs and competitions for the students in the Idukki district of Kerala under the label "Sasthragramam" was carried out by Joe Jacob and Ravi Pillai (Newman College, Thodupuzha). The final round of twenty students who topped in these programs were brought to IUCAA, where they interacted with facultymembers and research students and visited various facilities like the IGO, GMRT, etc. Fig 8 The Kerala astronomy activities were centred around the active involvement of the late Professor V C Kuriakose, former head of the Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science andTechnology (CUSAT) Ninan Sajeeth Philip is a visiting professor at IUCAA in his third term this year, starting in 2019. He is also a Senior Advisor to the Pune Knowledge Cluster and Director of Artificial Intelligence Research and Intelligent Systems (airis4D) in Thelliyoor, Kerala. Formerly, he taught at St Thomas College, Kozhencherry, for 33 years and is a visiting associate of IUCAA. His areas of expertise are AI and machine learning. Fig 9 Many scientific contributions and discoveries have emerged from the Kerala astronomers. Notably, the discovery of the giant Galaxy Supercluster Saraswathi was spearheaded by Joe Jacob from Newman College in collaborationwithJoydeepBachi from IUCAA. | 08 | KHAG L | No. 131 - JANUARY 2024