Infy foundation to promote research career among Science students

What would a career in Science research look like? What are the challenges one would have to face and what are the rewards?

To help young Science students envision a future in research, the Infosys Science Foundation, will soon be launching a Summer Immersion Program.

President of the foundation's board of trustees and co-founder of Infosys, K Dinesh, discussed the initiative with DH, on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the winners of the Infosys Prize 2017.

"We need to promote science and technology in our country as they can be used to solve many problems in society today. For our country's economy to grow, we cannot rely on science and technology coming from other countries. We need to have our own," Dinesh said. Though there are several grants to fund research, more students need to be moved towards it, he said.

Immersion programs, offered by several universities across the world, are meant to give students a preview of working in a particular field of study.

To begin with, ISF's program will be offered to students all over India who are studying in the field of Physics at the undergraduate level. The two-week program will be held in the summer of 2018.

"We will give students latest knowledge about the emerging fields and the kind of research taking place in different parts of the world. We will talk to them about opportunities in research labs in the country and abroad," Dinesh said.

Established scientists, including previous winners of the Infosys Prize, will talk to the students about techniques and share their experience. Students will also have an opportunity to construct experiments.

"The idea is to show them that this path, a career in research, is possible," he said.

The investment in science research in our country is improving, he said, but the change is not happening fast enough.

"The government at present spends only about 0.8% of its GDP on research in science and technology. There are countries which spend between 4 and 8% of their GDP. Political leadership and policymakers need to focus on this," Dinesh said.