All participants need to be in Bangalore for the Finals and be available from 9 am to 6 pm on Sunday, 24^th November. All outstation participants are also requested to make their own travel and stay arrangements accordingly.

We would strongly recommend that you bring your innovation submitted during the preliminary stage to display during the finals. Our finalists, judges, and guests would love to see working models built by your child. However, if it is too unwieldy or inconvenient to travel with your model/experiment, please email us and we will figure out if we can help you in any way.

Schedule for the Day

For those of you, who have participated earlier, there are a few changes in this year’s format:

1. Only contestants are allowed on campus from 10:00 AM to 12: 30 PM. Parents/Guardians could use this time to see Malleswaram Market, or take a metro to Lalbagh and see the world-famous Botanical Gardens, or other places of interest nearby. They may choose to return at 12.30pm to have lunch with their wards on the premises.
2. Judges’ interaction will take place, serially, in closed rooms from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM and will not be accessible to parents. Judges will spend about 4-5 minutes with each contestant individually.
3. Exhibits (from the Prelims) will be arranged on tables from 12:30 PM. As and when the contestant completes her/his interaction with the judges, the exhibit made in the finals will also be displayed on the table.
4. The finals will be open for general interaction from 2:00 PM onwards. Feel free to invite your family and friends to the event.

Activity	Date	Time
Registrations	3 February	01:00 PM
Contest	3 February	2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Interaction with Judges & Guests + Exhibition	4 February	10:00 AM to 12:30 PM & 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Lunch	4 February	12.30 PM to 1:30 PM
Snacks & Tea	4 February	3:30 PM to 4:15 PM
Award Announcement & Presentations	4 February	4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

*Please note that a simple lunch will be provided for the contestants. Guests can also purchase lunch at a nominal cost at the venue.

Stay options

1. Treebo
2. Makemytrip
3. Oyo Rooms

What to Expect in the Final

The Finals will be a separate event, where your previous entry holds no bearing. Instead, you will be given a new topic or a selection of activities, some basic introductions about the topic and activities, and a selection of materials to choose from to create your own impromptu innovation or variation(s) on the day. You will have two hours to create your innovation or variation(s). Following lunch, you will have sufficient time to interact with an eminent panel of scientists – who will be the judges for the day – to discuss your work. The day will culminate in a short presentation function.

You will not be required to or allowed to bring any materials from home or elsewhere to use during the Finals. The use of phones and books by children will also be prohibited. Group work will not be allowed, nor will any help from parents/guests or any other adult be accepted. The RYSI team may use their discretion in providing help for certain tasks (e.g. working with a candle), especially to the younger children.

If your child has not been electronically confirmed by the school, please bring a bonafide certificate from the school or a Government-issued ID confirming your child’s age and/or standard your child is studying in.

PANEL OF SCIENTISTS TO JUDGE THE FINALISTS

1. Jayant Murthy, Senior Faculty, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore; PhD, Johns Hopkins University, USA; worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA), Maryland, USA, specialist in Space Astronomy with broad interests.
2. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Retired Faculty, Indian Institute of Astrophysics. PhD IISc. Great breadth and depth in various branches of physics, excellent in hands-on experiments; fluent in maths; Co-author of the biography of KS Krishnan, deeply involved in People’s Science Network
3. Mousumi Das, Faculty at IIA; previously at RRI & Univ. of Maryland, USA; PhD, IISc. Focus of interest in galactic and extra-galactic astronomy. Apart from her active research, Mousumi also enjoys giving outreach and popular talks on astronomy to children and the general public, and does so whenever the opportunity arises.
4. Prajval Shastri, Retired Faculty, IIA; MSc from IIT-Bombay, followed by PhD at TIFR’s NCRA, and postdoctoral stints at Cal-Berkeley and UT Austin. Expert in the field of extragalactic radio astronomy, in particular radio jets and active galactic nuclei. Extremely active in astronomy outreach and member of All India People’s Science Network and the Women in Science initiative
5. Sravanti Uppaluri, School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), APU, biophysicist and quantitative biologist, postdoc at Princeton, PhD from Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation, Göttingen, MSc from Univ of Toronto, works on model organisms such as C. Elegans and hydra.
6. Dipankar Banerjee, Faculty, IIA. PhD, IIA. Post-doc positions at Armagh, Northern Ireland and Leuven, Belgium. Broad interest in solar astronomy, with a particular focus on magneto-hydrodynamics. Also uses archived solar data from, for example, the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory.
7. Ravinder K. Baniyal, Faculty, IIA. PhD at IIA. Followed by postdoc positions at Boston and Goettingen. Ravinder is an experimental physicist working in the area of wave front sensing, where his research and expertise has been internationally recognised. At IIA, Ravinder is very active in doing astronomy Outreach activities for students and the general public all over the country.
8. Shashi Thutupalli, Faculty, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), biophysicist, postdoc at Princeton and Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation, Göttingen, PhD from the latter, MSc from Univ of Toronto, research on organisation of living systems and synthetic mimics of living matter. Also associated with the Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines, and ICTS.
9. DCV Mallik, Retired Faculty, IIA; Main area of work Interstellar Matter and Planetary Nebulae. PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Senior author of the biography of Sir KS Krishnan; edited books on astronomy, currently working in the field of History of Science.
10. Shailaja Sharma, Adjunct Faculty, National Institute of Advanced Studies, and part-time maths and statistics faculty at Mallya Aditi International School. MSc and PhD from IIT Bombay, worked at Shell and with various development agencies (World Bank, UN etc.) as a statistician and consultant. Has a deep interest in the Indic traditions of mathematics.
11. Krishnapriya (Priya) Tamma, SAS, APU, ecologist and conservation scientist, extensive work in the field, PhD from NCBS on mammal diversity, BE from RVCE, heavily involved in organising conferences for young scientists/ecologists.
12. Mr. Proteep Mallik, SAS, APU. Extensive experience in the field of optical engineering with firms such as Pacific Biosciences and KLA-Tencor in the USA. Graduate studies at Optical Sciences Center, Univ. of Arizona, USA.