Teaching and Mentorship

  • NURPH Curriculum Team

    I am a member of the curriculum committee of NURPH (Northwestern University Research Program for High Schoolers), an initiative of the graduate students of the MSE department at Northwestern, where high school students get an opportunity to work on a research project for seven weeks during the summer. While at Northwestern, on top of research, they are trained in materials science fundamentals through a series of lectures and demonstrations, and they also learn relevant soft skills through workshops on data handling and college prep. As a member of the curriculum team, I designed and developed a materials science curriculum that is suited to an high school audience. I also delivered four of the lectures to the students in the summer of 2023, which received plenty of positive feedback for the incorporation of real-life examples to understanding mechanical behaviour of materials.

  • Letters to a Pre-Scientist

    Since 2022, I’ve been a STEM professional for LPS, involved in writing letters to a pen pal who is a student from middle schools in low-income neighborhoods across the US. The objective of the program is to provide real-life examples of a STEM professional who can encourage the student to consider a future career in STEM. The letter themes include STEM career pathways, higher education journeys, overcoming obstacles, and reflection and inspiration.

Science Communication

I have taken up a few small writing projects and one key theme in most of them has been Science Communication. You can also read some of my other writings on Medium.

  • Medill’s Skills & Careers in Science Writing

    In Fall 2021, I took the Science Writing course offered my Medill School of Journalism on Skills & Careers in Science Writing, which is taught by Prof. Patti Wolter, and Prof. Donna Leff. We had guest lectures from many prominent science writers, and had Becky Lang of Discover Magazine as our guest editor for the final article.

  • Immerse - The Annual IIT Madras Science Magazine

    I was part of the IIT Madras Magazine on Research in Science and Engineering (IMMERSE) team from 2016 to 2019. The aim of Immerse is to tell stories about the research at IIT Madras and to highlight the excitement of discovery and innovation. Immerse writers talk to professors and their graduate students, read up on the research and write articles about the work. I was a writer for three annual editions and also served on the Editorial Board for the 2017-18 Edition. These are the articles I wrote for Immerse:

    • Combating Cancer - Scaling Heights by Scaling Down, Immerse 2016-17 Edition. [PDF].
    • Thermodynamic Charting of Materials Space, Immerse 2017-18 Edition. [PDF]
    • Corrosion - A Multi-scale Perspective, Immerse 2018-19 Edition. [PDF]

    The other editions of IMMERSE are available here.

  • Kenyon Review Young Science Writers Workshop

    I got an opportunity to visit Kenyon College (Ohio, USA) as a fellow for the Kenyon Review Young Science Writers program in Summer 2019 thanks to Prof. Chris Gillen, who visited IIT Madras for a workshop in December 2018. My primary job was to be a teaching assistant to the workshop instructors. The participants were high school students from different parts of the US, and I was the only person from outside the US among the instructors. I also taught one of the workshop’s “genre” sessions, in which instructors could dive into any relevant topic of interest. The theme of my session was crystallography and a link between art and science. During the session we built models of cubic Bravais lattices using modelling clay and bamboo sticks. The students were thrilled to discover that symmetry played such a crucial role in crystalline materials all around us.

The session on crystallography included a small introduction to symmetry operations and a hands-on activity where we built models using modelling clay and bamboo sticks.
The session on crystallography included a small introduction to symmetry operations and a hands-on activity where we built models using modelling clay and bamboo sticks.
We built models of the three cubic Bravais lattices and three rows of close packed spheres to look at stacking.
We built models of the three cubic Bravais lattices and three rows of close packed spheres to look at stacking.
Here, I am engrossed in talking about the body centered cubic lattice as Prof. Chris looks on.
Here, I am engrossed in talking about the body centered cubic lattice as Prof. Chris looks on.

Next Up

I am always on the lookout for avenues to contribute to science communication and have some ideas that I’d like to see in action soon. If you share this interest and have suggestions, I would love to hear from you.