Aurovrata Aurele Venet
Freelance
Dr. Aurovrata Venet trained as an Astrophysicist specialising in data analytics. He started his career at the European Space Agency contributing to various planetary mission data pipelines and eventually returned to live in India where he was raised. He is a passionate science educator, especially for children, and has contributed to various science communication programs for school.
While based in south India, he was inspired to leverage his experience for the benefit of marginalised communities, raising funds and conducting educational programs for slum children. He is currently based in Fukuoka for a year.
Sessions
Promoting science and engineering among marginalised slum-children of Chennai (India)
In this talk, I will discuss two projects aimed at promoting science and engineering among marginalized slum-dwelling children of Chennai, India. Both projects were conducted with a local NGO, working with rescued orphans from bonded labor camps in South India. The first project involved raising funds from science lectures for adult audiences, which sponsored an outing with the children to the Indian Space Port in Sriharikota about 3 hours north of Chennai, to witness the launch of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) PSLV rocket. The second project was sponsored by the Yamaha India (pvt) Ltd company, using their corporate social responsibility funds to organize a tour of the Yamaha motorcycle and scooter manufacturing plant in Chennai. The local NGO, which conducts maths and language for older children and arts and crafts for the younger ones, reported a heightened interest in space and science subjects following these outings.