“Open-Labs Day” to Communicate Science with Lay People

Open exhibition of research in Institute Labs help to communicate science and engineering concept to non-experts. It is the tradition of premier Institutes of India such as IISc and IITD to reach-out to such local people by showcasing lab innovations annually. Other institutes of national importance in their respective regions can also do the same. The article is in-line with the DST AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research) programme to communicate science with lay people.

“Open-Labs Day” is a Science Communication which is public communication of science-related topics to non-experts. It includes science exhibitions, communication between scientists and non-scientists etc. It is the “Public understanding of Science”. If public enjoys science more, there would presumably be more progressive regulation, and trained scientists and engineers. Here, the institute labs prepare posters, small demonstration of experiments and interesting simulations.

Benefits:

- It will help local communities of non-experts to understand interesting aspects of science and to have engineering solutions to their problems which is difficult otherwise

- PhD students will get new insights about their research while explaining to non-experts and will get motivated by connecting to people who can use their research in future

- By exposure in such events, prospective PhD students of the region will be better prepared to do cutting edge research