Aspiring Minds to host India Science Fest 2020

Gurgaon: The beginning of 2020 will mark a massive celebration of science and technology with the India Science Fest, which aims to bridge the gap between science and society. This extravaganza is a non-profit initiative to help youth engage with the latest in science from across the world, fueling curiosity and demystifying the scientific career path. Aspiring Minds, an Indian-born global assessments leader, is a lead organizer of the Festival in association with the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University, the primary academic partner for the event.

With the aim to be "the greatest science show in India", India Science Fest 2020 will take place on January 11-12, 2020, in Pune. The festival will be held at the lush green campus of IISER (Indian Institute of Science and Education), India's leading academic institution with excellent accomplishments.

This year's major themes are Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, with additional focuses on life sciences, astronomy, quantum physics, and others. The festival will host discussions, exhibitions, experiments, and more on topics related to the history of science, women in science, science and the arts, and India's place in the world of science. Several hands-on demonstrations at the festival will include artificial -intelligence-generated art, autonomous vehicles, and brain-controlled helicopters, to name a few.

India Science Fest 2020 The Fest will also run competitions whose winning candidates will give public flash talks and demonstrations on their thesis and science projects. Select students will get a chance to be mentored by some of the best scientists in the world. The festival will welcome over 40 speakers from across the globe. Leading artificial intelligence experts Subbarao Kambhampati (ASU) and Milind Tambe (Harvard University), astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan (Yale), neuroscientists Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard), VS Ramachandran (UCSD) and Pawan Sinha (MIT), science policy expert Xue Lan (China), and speech recognition expert Helen Meng (Hong Kong) are among the event's confirmed speakers. India Science Fest expects 10,000+ attendees. Aspiring Minds is one of the few startups in India building AI-led products and publishing research in top global AI conferences. India Science Fest is the brainchild of Varun Aggarwal, co-founder and CTO of Aspiring Minds also author of a book on science policy. "Indian science is a sleeping giant! We wish to wake it up," says Aggarwal. "We wish to bring students, professionals, and the general public face-to-face with the world's top scientists, to hear about the latest discoveries and see cutting-edge inventions. This will be truly disruptive and influential in ways we cannot imagine. At the least, it will enthuse people about science: how it can transform society and provide role models.