"INA – Land of Legends Marathon"

The INA - Land of Legends Marathon is the first of its kind run, to be held inside the India Naval Academy, in Ezhimala. Participants, coming from all over India, Civilians, Armed forces personnel alike, will participate in this historic event , on the 3rd of December ! The INA marathon will be a national event where the grandeur and glory of INA will be showcased to the participants. The main aims of the event are...

A. To motivate the youth of schools and colleges of north Kerala and south Karnataka to take up Indian Navy as a career through INA.

B.To showcase the majestic Campus and glorious history of Ezhimala and provide a glimpse of INA to avid runners from all walks of life. Only Indian nationals would be permitted to participate initially, with participation by foreign runners being considered in later editions.

C.To provide serving and retired Armed Forces personnel from across the country an event to reconnect.

The Indian Naval Academy (INA) is a premier training establishment of the Indian Navy which conducts B. Tech. curriculum together with ab-initio training for 10+2 entry cadets in addition to the MSc (Applied Electronics &Communication) for ex NDA cadets and Naval Orientation Course training for Direct Entry Officer trainees. The Academy is located at the historic location of Ezhimala in north Kerala on the sea shore of western Coast with the historic Dilli Light House overlooking a beach stretch of 7 kms. Further the periphery of the Academy spans over a 22 kms stretch of metalled road. This provides an ideal setting for conduct of a marathon. The culture of marathon and long distance running has been growing rapidly and The Indian Navy are at the fore front of it. In keeping with the traditions of the Indian Navy and following the successful conduct of Navy marathons at Vizag and Mumbai, it is planned to conduct an Indian Naval Academy Open Marathon.

The race Director Cdr Paramdeep Singh Soodan is an ardent runner. He says, “INA marathon will give you the best surroundings for running. You start at the Chola Stadium with the Dilli Hill in the background, you go on the periphery of INA and come very close to backwaters and soon you will be on Zamorin beach facing the historic Dilli Lighthouse. Soon you will be on the other end of INA at Ettikulam bay and a U turn will bring you back to the finish point. Though you will be running in early winter morning in pleasant climate but humidity will challenge you and make bring to hidden resources towards the end.”

Running is a passion for Commander Paramdeep Singh Soodan and has been into running since his college days. He seriously took up running after joining the Indian Navy in 2004. He has been running now for the last 14 years. He was part of the Navy team that took part in Army Adventure Cup 2005 which included Cycling, Running and River Rafting. He ran his first half marathon in Goa marathon at Panaji in Mar 2013. Since then he has run half marathons in Goa River Marathon (2013 and 2014), Goa Beach Marathon 2014, Go heritage Run Bidar 2015, Stone Ridge Valley Marathon Nashik 2016, NIO Vision Marathon Pune 2016. He graduated to running full marathons in Goa River Marathon 2016 and immediately joined the elite Ultra marathon runners category by running 51kms in Run the Rann in Rann of Kutch in Feb 2017 (stood 7 th among 45 runners), followed it with running 65 kms in Far East Ultra on Indo-Myanmar border in Apr 17 and again 50 kms in Shimla Ultra in Jun 17. As Joint Director Training(Adventure) at National Defence Academy, Pune he was also training cadets in X-country running both as an individual and as a Squadron and successfully guided the Squadron under his training to win the inter Squadron X- country Championship in Feb 2017. Now he is at the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala training and promoting running among the officers and cadets. After joining the Indian Naval Academy in end Jun he has run half marathons at Coorg (13 Aug 17), Celebration Mysore Marathon (03 Sep 17) and the famed Satara Hill Marathon on 17 Sep 17. He is also into research in Positive Psychology and Spirituality for peak performance in mind, body and spirit.

Team Avakaash wishes the event a grand success and suggests that enthusiasts should make use of this golden opportunity.

Race Categories
3 km Walk-Run
5 km Walk-Run
10 km and 21 km races (competitive)
All finishers get medals.

Schedule
05:45 AM: Flag-Off for the 21 Km
06:15 AM : 10 Km
06:45 AM: Start for 3K and 5K
07:30 AM onwards, Post run festivities
Reporting time 01 hr before flag off.

Registration Link: http://inamarathon.com

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"India wins Gold at 1st Global Robotics Olympiad in USA"

India won 2 medals (only country except Sudan out of 158 countries to win 2 medals) - Gold for Zhang Heng Engineering Design Award and bronze for Global Challenge Match at the international robotics challenge organised by FIRST Global in Washington DC.

Sleepless nights since 3 months by these 7 boys and their parent's energy as a force behind finally made India Shine on the global stage.

This is just a beginning, we need to take this mission of inspiring the youth towards #STEM and bringing future innovator to really deep inside every corner of India especially Tier II and III towns.

Team India is glad to have backers like TATA, YES Bank, Shree Santkrupa Shikshan Sanstha, Atelier Global, Gagan Goyal, Priti Patel, Fahad Azad and team mentor Nilesh Shah.

Team Avakaash congratulates them on this stupendous achievement.

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"NASA Wallops - Kalamsat Launch Streaming"

Approximately 150 university and community college students and instructors and high school educators will get that chance during Rocket Week June 17 through 23 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Nearly 130 university and community college students and instructors from across the country will build and fly experiments on a NASA suborbital rocket through the RockOn! and RockSat-C programs. Another 20 high school educators from across the United States will examine how to apply rocketry basics into their curriculum through the Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers (WRATs) .

The week ends with the students launching their experiments on a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket at 6 a.m. EDT on June 22. The rocket is 36 feet long and the payload weighs 667 pounds.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will open at 5 a.m. EDT on launch day for viewing the flight. Live coverage of the mission is scheduled to begin at 5:30 a.m. on the Wallops Ustream site. Launch updates also are available via the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites. Facebook Live coverage begins at 5:45 a.m. The rocket launch is expected to be seen from the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland.

Smartphone users can download the “What’s Up at Wallops” app for information on the launch as well as a compass showing the precise direction for launch viewing.

The June rocket will carry 23 experiments (measuring acceleration, humidity, pressure, temperature and radiation counts) from the RockOn! program, nine experiments from the RockSat-C program and more than 80 small cubes with experiments developed by middle school students in 49 states as part of the Cubes in Space program, a partnership between idoodlelearning inc. and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.

Kalamsat

Kalamsat which was featured on our blog is being launched today at 3PM IST.

History about to be created. Follow this link for streaming of NASA Wallops (3PM IST). We are happy that Kalamsat built by young students from SpaceKidzIndia is part of the launch. Wishing Team SKI and their mentor Dr. Srimathy Kesan the very best for a successful launch.

Link to Streaming: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops

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"India gets chance to win at World Robotics Olympiad"

Since 1989, FIRST has been organizing robotics competitions mainly in North America - FIRST Global is now taking this objective across the globe. FIRST Global is more than just a Robotics Competition –

It Is THE OLYMPICS OF ROBOTICS.

Out of 1000+ entries, 13 student team will be representing India at the world 1st First Global Challange, I am one of the First Global Challenge India committee members along with other industirey experts and enthusiasts involved in 6 months journey of selecting and mentoring the team India.

There are a brilliant bunch of High School students who are doing Image processing on Raspberry Pi, coding using Java and designing robots on SolidWorks.

We have raised Rs.10 Lakh($15K) from TATA + family and friend for building our robot and practice game field. we need another Rs.10 Lakh ($15K) for logistics and stay for 13 member team to reach Washington DC on 17 July 2017 for the event.

Your support will enable our students to grow to become world leaders in every aspect of life. Our children deserve the best support systems that we can provide so that they reach the commanding heights of excellence. This will be an opportunity for all of us to bring the talent out from all corners of India, which too often go unrecognized. If 10 companies could just sponsor 1Lakh ($1.5k) each we can reach our target goal.

The Indian effort is managed by www.firstglobalindia.com. We look forward to your participation and help to make this initiative a major STEM education enabler in India.

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"SMALLEST, LIGHTEST AND 1ST TIME FULLY 3D PRINTED SATELLITE"

Pleaze find below the details of our "Kalam Sat- a Femto category Satellite" We have researched all and found our Femto Sat to be the World's Lightest.

It is a 3.8 cm Cube Satellite (Femto category), weighing 64 grams (including the plastic cube provided by CiS) It's structure is fully 3D printed with reinforced carbon fiber polymer in which we will be using complex carbon fiber and ABS built with fusion deposition modeling 3D printer.

A temperature and humidity sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, which are all connected to an OBC using I2C interface. It also will contain a "Nano Geiger Muller counter", which will measure the radiation in outer space.

Kalam Sat, is named after former president and Rocket Scientist of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This is to encourage the student community into space research and explore more avenues in an economical manner. We are extremely excited and looking forward for the launch...

The Space Kidz India team is lead by
Mr. Rifath Sharook - Lead Scientist
Mr. Yagna Sai - Technical Engineer
Mr. Vinay Bharadwaj - Design Engineer
Mr. Tanishq Dwivedi - Flight Engineer
Mr. Gobinath. - Biologist
Mr. Mohammed Kaasif - Testing Engineer

FROM CUBES IN SPACES:
World's Lightest Satellite Weighing Merely 64 gms Designed By An Indian Teen!! "Kalamsat" | To Be Launched By NASA - Student Stories

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"A cognitive approach towards education and learning " - Don't be repetitive

To understand the dynamics, method and the focal point of learning is to become Cognitive. Cognitive learning is essentially “not bringing repetitive” learning and “lack of thought driven ideas”. According to Oxford Learning, "cognitive learning" is the function based on how a person processes and reasons information. It revolves around many factors, including problem-solving skills, memory retention, thinking skills and the perception of learned material.

Essentially every individual is capable of producing bright ideas, yet only few individuals truly stand out to be the so called “path makers”. Given the immense possibilities that the world has to offer us in terms of technological and societal progress, the world has produced such talented individuals only in few numbers. Some known, many unknown. Yet there are infinite opportunities for each of us to become intellectually strong and independent by utilizing a radical and logical thought driven approach towards thinking. One must understand that all our education as a system proves to serve only a quantitative purpose and ignores all qualitative aspects of life. As Einstein proclaimed “Any fool can know. The point is to understand” stresses the real purpose of education for each of us. It is very important for individuals to be able to think creatively and out of the box especially in this age of disruption. So how does being Cognitive help in understanding and growing different perspectives of learning?

A classic example for Cognitive learning is Sherlock Holmes (A fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) who applies deductive reasoning and utilizes intuitive methods of thinking to connect the dots and solve crimes is what can happen when Cognitive learning is brought about in an individual. In a more realistic sense, Srinivasan Ramanujan, C V Raman, Rene Descartes, Voltaire, David Hume and others stood apart as path makers by bringing together different perspectives of thought and influencing others through their action. They can be said as the torchbearers in the real essence of education wherein an individual’s thought process is triggered. Being Cognitive definitely opens you to a different world of infinite opportunities. Do not be repetitive, do not hesitate to learn and inspire.

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Prepare for your exam, the "SMART" way

With exams around the corner, each moment may seem to be nail biting and strenuous, but that’s why examinations are made for, to bring out the best talent in each person under stipulated timeframe. To the one who who studies for exams or the parents who get stressed about exams, we in Avakaash thought to bring out few pointers which could help you in your exam preparation.

1. Mindset

First is first, positive reinforcement of thoughts as a mental outlook in preparing yourself for taking up the task of examination is crucial. Exams may be hard but you can still crack it. A focused and strong outlook on exam perspective will help you in winning half the struggle. Always remember “You can do it.”

2. Scheduling

A plan without a strategy is futile, so is going to exams without scheduling your time. One should chart out his/her schedule for exam preparation. If you are running out of time however, scheduling is even more crucial in preparing for the time you have left. You can judiciously use your time in this way to overcome your weak areas and strengthen your strong areas of learning.

3. Contemplate

The way of exam preparation is not in memorising or in exact replication of text, but in contemplating or understanding the core concept of the subject. It helps you in better memory retention and also in writing good content full answers.

4. Have fun

Its always good to lighten up the mood and there’s nothing wrong in taking short breaks of fun.Listen to music, take a walk to the park, refresh yourself for awhile. It helps you to balance out the stress and keeps you brimming with energy.

5. Sleep

Having right amount of sleep is very important, a sleepless day would cause blunders, getting upto 6-7 hours of sleep is very crucial and helps you to start your day good.

With all the pointers, we from Avakaash hope you really achieve great accomplishments in your exams as well as in the future. All the very best.

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