Visakhapatnam :

Eleven girls from underprivileged families, studying at government-run Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) in Chittoor and Nellore, are on cloud nine after receiving invitations from the National Space Society.  (NSS) in the US to participate in the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) that will be held in Los Angeles on May 24.

 
Prathyusha Velaga, K Reddyrani, Sneha Chetipatti, Divya Gujjala, Roshni Shaik, K Preethi, T Sai Sree, M Pooja, V Saida Bhanu, V Aswani and M Chenchu Lavanya received the invitations on Monday to take part in the annual space contest being organised by NSS in collaboration with the NASA Ames Research Centre.

The girls will present posters on potential human settlements or residential colonies in space and the entries will be sent for judging to NASA. The students will be accompanied to Los Angeles by their teachers and parents and their visits will be sponsored by the state government.

The 11 students are being trained by the state education department and Planetary Society of India (PSI). The proposal to train and equip the girls was put forward by G Srinivas, an IAS officer and state project director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

“We launched this project this year and took submissions from the KGBVs of Chittoor and Nellore districts located close to Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. Next year, we plan to take this project forward for all 13 districts in the state. Out of a total of 18 submissions, 11 submissions received invitations from the organisers in US,” Srinivas said.

The grand prize winner will receive the $3,000 NSS Bruce M Clark Jr Space Settlement Award.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Visakhapatnam News / TNN / March 06th, 2018