Mangaluru: NITK Surathkal observed National Science Day Friday with lectures, exhibition and interactive sessions involving students from schools across Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.Maria Thaker, professor at Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc Bengaluru, delivered the keynote. She discussed how animals navigate complex landscapes and whether they rely on mental maps to move through forests and savannas. Drawing on fieldwork in South Africa and India, she explained the use of GPS collars, radio tracking, satellite data and temperature sensors to study large mammals, including elephants. She said rising temperatures can alter movement patterns, with elephants moving faster to reach water sources. Thaker also outlined her team’s seven-year effort to map mesocarnivores in the Deccan Plateau savanna to study predator movement and ecosystem dynamics.Students from 21 schools took part in an interactive session, asking questions on animal empathy and field research challenges, which she addressed in an extended discussion.In his inaugural address, NITK director B Ravi said curiosity and creativity drive scientific progress. He linked science and engineering to national development goals, including the Viksit Bharat vision. He also spoke about the growing role of artificial intelligence in education and highlighted NITK’s contribution to the Virtual Labs initiative that enables online access to laboratory experiments.A science exhibition featured over 30 live demonstrations by research scholars and Master’s students from departments of physics, chemistry and mathematical & computational sciences. Exhibits included holography, Tesla coils, line-following robots, chemical clocks, fluorescence, communication systems, puzzles and cryptography.The event concluded with an inter-school science quiz and certificate distribution.National Science Day is observed on Feb 28 to commemorate Sir CV Raman’s discovery of the Raman Effect.
