(Picture- Launching of STEM Mentorship Program for School Girls)

New Delhi: With an aim to encourage girls towards choosing science as their career, IIT Delhi, India’s premier higher education institute in the engineering and technology domain, has launched STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Mentorship Program for schoolgirls.

The primary objectives of the program, designed for Class 11th girl students, are to train young students to think creatively about science and innovation, to provide them novel hand-on experience in solving research problems, and to help them form a stronger knowledge foundation.

Speaking about the STEM Mentorship Program for the schoolgirls, Prof V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi said, “STEM needs to have more women participation. Through the mentorship program initiated by IIT Delhi, schoolgirls will get exposure to some of the world class laboratories and research work going on here. I am hopeful that this mentorship at IIT Delhi will prove to be a turning point in their lives and they would be motivated to enter the world of science and technology and help society with their research work.”

Under this initiative, each schoolgirl will be mentored by an IIT Delhi faculty along with his/ her research scholars. During the mentorship period, they will be exposed to foundational concepts in STEM disciplines, and also learn the experimental methods and techniques used in science labs.

“The program will give girl students some required traction for getting into the fields of science and technology in the future. We believe that students should be exposed to scientific concepts at an early age, to be able to appreciate the rigour of academic research, and to build up the confidence to take up academics as a career choice when they grow up”, said Prof Pritha Chandra, Associate Dean, Academic Outreach and New Initiatives, IIT Delhi. 

There will be ten class 11th girl students of science stream in one batch, and this is going to be a three-level program-

i) A two-week winter project, starting from the end of Dec 2021 and ending in early Jan 2022),

ii) An online lecture series, consisting of modules in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics and some Engineering branches. These lectures will be delivered by IIT Delhi professors during the period between Feb and Apr 2022. During this period, the students will also be interacting constantly with their mentors on their specific projects.

iii) Summer project (3-4 Weeks in May-June 2022), where the students will get hands on experience in labs, and finalize their project reports with their mentors.

The project areas of the students will cover different disciplines of science and engineering such as computer science, chemistry, mechanical engineering, physics, and biological sciences.

In the first batch, the ten students are from different Kendriya Vidyalayas in the Delhi region. In the future, there are plans to have participation from students from other regions in the country and turn the program into a residential one.                               

The STEM Mentorship Program for schoolgirls is the second academic outreach initiative by IIT Delhi for school students. In September 2021, the Institute had launched SciTech Spins lecture series for students from class 9th - 12th.  Under this initiative, IIT Delhi professors engaged in cutting edge research in science, technology and allied fields deliver online lectures and conduct laboratory demonstrations every month. The 4th SciTech Spin lecture was held on December 18, 2021.

Schools may reach out to the Associate Dean, Academic Outreach & New Initiatives, IIT Delhi (e-mail- adoni@iitd.ac.in; acadoutreach@iitd.ac.in) to nominate their girl students for the mentorship program. 

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