The Annular Solar Eclipse – 2019: Observation camp at University of Jaffna
Examination for selecting students to the Observation camp in Jaffna and Kilinochchi
Application form and Flyer 

Northern Sri Lanka will witness an annular eclipse on 26th December 2019. Ancients feared solar eclipses and considered them as a sign of an evil to come. Yet some philosophers of antiquity and Panchangam (Hindu Calendar) understood that solar eclipses happen when the sun is obscured by moon. Modern science enabled calculation of the dates and times of eclipses occurrences to utmost precisions. Measurements conducted during solar eclipses had also unravelled many physical phenomena. Today a total or an annular eclipse appearing in the skies above the land you live is regarded a blessing. These awesome celestial events arouse curiosity and masses watching the display, feel that “all are humbly united in front of the sun and moon”. The appearance of a total or annular solar eclipse is a rare opportunity to cultivate scientific inquisitiveness and human unity. University of Jaffna in collaboration with University of Colombo and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences plans to organize an eclipse observing camps in Jaffna and Killinochchi, mainly for students and conduct lectures on related astronomical topics. Plans are also made to conduct scientific measurement for research during the eclipse.

These activities are co-sponsored by the Ministry of Science Technology and Research, Sri Lanka and CBERC project (http://project.jfn.ac.lk/hrncet/).

Organising committee (http://event.jfn.ac.lk/eclipse/index.php/organizing-committee/) of the Solar Eclipse Program – 2019 made arrangement to conduct written examination (questions will be related to Eclipse and Astronomy in general) on December 13, 2019 (Friday) among school students (Grade 8-10). Prior to this examination, an informative video session on Solar Eclipse will be displayed at the examination centre to create awareness and training a few hundred school students about the Annular Solar Eclipse and safety observation issues.

·     For more detail of the eclipse, please visit  https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/sri-lanka/jaffna.

·     For registration to sit the examination, please visit http://event.jfn.ac.lk/eclipse/ 

·     Applicant can also register by filling a hard copy of the application available at their DS office. The application form can be photocopied.

·     Deadline for submission (online/via DS office) of the application: 09.12.2019 (Monday).

·     Date of an informative session on Solar Eclipse and Examination: 13.12.2019 (Friday)

·     Detail of the examination centres and other detail of the solar eclipse will be updated at  http://event.jfn.ac.lk/eclipse/.

The organizing committee or individual involved in this program is not responsible for any injury happened during participation in the observation camp

 

Educational Training on Clean Energy Technologies for School Students in Jaffna District

This programme was organized in collaboration with the Provincial Department of Education, Northern Province. From 6-14 March 2018, an educational training on CETs for 2684 school students from 56 schools in the Jaffna District was conducted. A total of 10 sessions, each of 2.5 hours duration, were organized at 6 different schools. Two sessions were conducted at Vembadi Girls’ High School (Jaffna), Victoria College (Chullipuram), Mahajana College (Tellippalai) and Methodist Girls’ high School (Point Pedro), whereas one session was carried out at Chavakachcheri Hindu College and Velanai Central College.

Target group: Grades 8-11 and G.C.E (A/L) (2019 & 2020 batches of Science and Technology streams)

Main features of the programme:

  • Power point (PPT) presentations about Clean Energy Technologies (wind energy, hydro energy, bio energy and solar energy)
  • Video presentations on Clean Energy Technologies
  • Guided the students to do demonstration of working models such as solar fan cap, solar car, solar phone charger, solar garden night lamp (with senor), Solar fan, solar table lamp, Solar controller
  • Hands on experience in building smaller size solar panels using solar cells (Short video coverage of the event)
  • Written quiz examination on CETs. Find the list of students selected for further training at the university of Jaffna
  • Summary of students’ evaluation of the programme

65 students, who scored above 80 % in the written quiz examination on CETs, were selected for a one-day workshop and final round of quiz competition on CETs to be held in April 2018.

Resource persons:

  • Professors: P. Ravirajan, A. Atputharajah and Meena Senthilnanthanan
  • Senior Lecturers: Dr. B. Ketheesan, Dr. A. Thevakaran, Dr. A. Anbruvel and Dr. R. Shivatharsiny
  • Lecturer: Ms.S.Vinothini
  • Postgraduate students and Technical officers of University of Jaffna
  • Science graduates trained at the Training of Trainer (TOT) prorammes conducted in November 2017

Detailed report of the ten sessions conducted in Jaffna District

Media report (Tamil)

Reported by General Secretary/JSA

PDF copy of the power point slides can be found from the following link: CET – March 2018 – All slides-Final-2018-03-05
Training of Trainers (TOT) programme on Clean Energy Technologies  

The Jaffna Science Association and Provincial Department of Education, Northern Province in collaboration with University of Jaffna and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences conducted  TOT programmes on November 18 & 19, 2017 to Science and Technology stream teachers, junior academics and final year undergraduates for providing educational training on Clean Energy Technologies to the school students  in the Jaffna District.

Applications were invited in September 2017 from eligible school teachers, who teach Engineering Technology/Physics/Chemistry at 1AB schools in the Jaffna District and junior academics and final year undergraduates from the departments of Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Engineering Technology to serve as resource persons in this initiative. Thirty teachers including Assistant Zonal Directors of Education (Science) and In-Service Advisers (Science) and more than forty junior academics and final year undergraduates attended Training of Trainers (TOT) programme on clean energy technologies (solar, wind, hydro and bioenergy technologies, etc.)  on November 18 & 19, 2017.

The Vice-Chancellor of University of Jaffna, Assistant Director of Education (Science), Northern Province and President of Jaffna Science Association delivered Chief Guest and Guest of Honour addresses, respectively. Certificates were issued to all participants who completed the training session.

This activity was mainly funded by  the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka under ‘Capacity Building and Establishment of a Research Consortium (CBERC) in Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies’ project.

 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

Solar energy awareness programmes for school students 
– conducted at Jaffna Hindu College on 09.11.2017

                

 

Solar energy awareness programmes for school students 
– conducted at Chavakachcheri Hindu College on 10.11.2017

Promoting Science Education – Motivational speech (in Tamil) by Professor Dhayalan

Expert’s talks

No    Date Title of the talk Speaker & Affiliation  Qualifications
01 September 15, 2017 Computation modelling of Nanomaterials for the Solar cell applications Rasukkannu Murugesan, PhD student and Research associate, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences BE(Eng. Hons)(Anna University), MSc(Newcastle, UK), PhD(reading)
02 February 01, 2018 Enhanced performance of Dye sensitized Solar Cells using metal oxide based nanomaterials M. R. Venkatraman, Final year PhD student in Physics, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, India BSc, MSc (Physics, Bharathidasan), MPhil (Physics, Alagappa), PhD(reading)
03 March 2, 2018 Effect of doping on Binary Oxide Nanomaterials N. Rajamanickam, SERB – Postdoctoral Fellow, Nanostructure Laboratory, Dept. of Physics, Gandhigram Rural University, Gandhigram, Dindigul, TN, India BSc (Alagappa), MSc,  PhD  (Madurai Kamaraj )
04 March 21, 2018 Quantitative determination of calcium hydroxide in concrete by Near infrared spectroscopy Alfred A. Christy, Professor of Chemistry, Dept. of Science, Faculty of Engineering and Science University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway BSc (Pera), PhD (Bergen, Norway)
05 March 22, 2018 Operational Principles of Spectroscopic techniques Alfred A. Christy, Professor of Chemistry, Dept. of Science, Faculty of Engineering and Science University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway BSc (Pera), PhD (Bergen, Norway)
06 July 10,2018 An Introduction to Offshore Oil and Gas Industry Sutharsan Vivekananthan, Study Manager / Senior Project Engineer, Citec Norway MEng (Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, London), Chartered Chemical Engineer (CEng) – UK
07 July 20, 2018 Electrical Engineering according to International Standard Sivakumaran sundaram, Senior engineer Norwegian public Road Administration –
08 August 14, 2018 Bimetallic nanostructured electrodes for photocapacitors Dr.Akila Yuvapragasam, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Physics, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu- India PhD degree in the (Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India)

 
09  March 21, 2019 Material Characterization Techniques Professor Gamini Rajapakse, Senior Professor of Chemistry and Coordinator of the MSc Course in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (PGIS), University of Peradeniya BSc Hons (Chemistry, Peradeniya), Ph.D. (Imperial College) and DIC, FNASSL
10 March 22, 2019 How to write a scientific article? Professor Gamini Rajapakse, Senior Professor of Chemistry and Coordinator of the MSc Course in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (PGIS), University of Peradeniya BSc Hons (Chemistry, Peradeniya), PhD (Imperial College) and DIC, FNASSL
11 April 01, 2019 Magneto-transport in graphene devices: Fundamentals and applications Dr. Piranavan Kumaravadivel
Research Associate, Condensed Matter Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester		 BSc Hons (Physics, Peradeniya), MA (Stony Brook, USA), PhD (Stony Brook, USA)