Cogito137
Cogito137-The Thought Capsule is a web-based scicomm platform, hosted by IISER Kolkata, run by the students and alumni of the institute. Anybody who is passionate about science and wants to partake in popularising or explaining science to a general audience, is welcome to submit content in text/art/video format. Cogito137 accepts submissions perennially and perpetually, in English and several Indian languages.
I am one of the co-founders of the platform and the current chief editor of Cogito137.
01
First issue launch
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Cogito137 launched it's first issue on 5th February, 2020. It was started as a wall magazine on campus with an associated website. In it's present form, it is solely web-based. The magazine issues are published bi-monthly (one in two months), with occasional independent releases and ongoing series-based articles.
I was instrumental in chalking out the proposal for the platform and set the ball rolling. After approvals, I applied for an editorial position was selected for the chief editor position by the faculty advisor of the platform.
All published issues of Cogito137 can be found here.
Interested in practising your scicomm skills?
Check out the guidelines.
Submit.
02
#WIISER
#WIISER is an ongoing pan-IISER interview series, showcasing the contributions of women faculty in their respective STEM fields.
I coordinated the conduction of the following electronic interviews, edited the questionnaires and also the received transcripts of the interviews to make them relatable and digestible for a wide range of audiences.
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Dr. Koel Das: Into thoughts and beyond
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Dr. Anuradha Bhat: The exciting life of a field biologist
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Dr. Keerthi Harikrishnan: Building a career around her life
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Dr Poonam Thakur: Moving forward, with wisdom from the past
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Dr. Anindita Bhadra: Of flawed humans and cultured dogs
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Dr. Nisha N. Kannan: Synchronizing work, life and science with time
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Dr. R. S. Swathi : Where there is a will, there is a way
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Prof. Sumana Annagiri : With curiosity driven science, towards blue-sky research
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Dr. Deepshikha Jaiswal Nagar: Solving new challenges on her way, through a noxious work environment
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Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma : On training scientific minds and not just hands
Interested in conducting an interview for #WIISER?
Get in touch.
03
Team expansion
The initiative began with 3 co-founders and a small team of about 5 people. Presently Cogito137 is run by 20-25 students of science, based in different parts of the country, working through a virtual workspace. The team includes components for editing, design, videos, website, public relations and publicity. Most early recruits of the team were trained and guided by me.
Are you an IISER Kolkata student or alumni and are interested in joining the team?
Get in touch.
04
YouTube channel launch
In October 2020, Cogito137 launched its own YouTube channel. The launch event included short video lectures from scientists and scicommers from across the country and 2 international speakers.
I was instrumental in logistical and technical organisation of the entire event - inviting relevant talks, video editing and live-streaming of the event.
The channel now has a collection of multiple lecture videos and other events from various science and scicomm personas from India and abroad.
Check out the channel and subscribe for notifications of the latest uploads.
Interested in contributing a scicomm video or conducting an event on our channel?
Get in touch.
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05
A year of excellence
Cogito137 completed a year of excellence in scicomm on 5th February 2021. As a celebration, physical copies of the first-anniversary edition of the magazine were sent to libraries of 200 science institutes across the country. The endeavour was funded by the International relations and Outreach office of IISER Kolkata.
The issue included articles in English and Indian languages, and science illustrations. It was released on 28th February, National Science Day, as a part of IISER Kolkata's science day lecture.
Read the anniversary edition here.
Interested in getting published in upcoming issues?
Check out the guidelines.
Submit.
Cogito137 accepts content perennially and perpetually. There are no deadlines.
06
Collaborative events
Cogito137 is open to collaborations for scicomm related events and workshops, conferences involving students of science and other scicomm platforms who might be interested in dual publications for producing articles on a collaborative theme.
I arranged and supervised the collaboration of Cogito137 with National Center of Biological Sciences (NCBS) and InStem for the organisation of National Post-Doctoral symposium (NPDS) in April, 2021. I was also one of the primary organisers for Scicomm for Scientists, working directly with the convenor of the workshop. This was a scicomm conference for beginners organised by Cogito137 in collaboration with the International relations and Outreach office of IISER Kolkata, and was funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
Interested in collaborating with us or discussing collaboration possibilities?
Get in touch.
