AANA - Contibutions

A group of engineers from the U.S. and Assam visited this currently active river bank erosion site of the Brahmaputra River near Morigaon, Assam on January 10, 2010 as part of an effort to understand the causes of flooding and erosion in the river and success or failure of currently adopted control measures, and finally to develop a road map towards permanent solutions to these serious, and many times deadly, problems. The group is seen in the photograph below: Dr. Deva Borah and Dr. Chandan Mahanta (Front row L & R), Dr. Arvind Phukan, Mr. Rajib Goswami, and his colleague (Back row L-R).
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The field trip was initiated by Dr. Phukan, Consultant and retired Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, and arranged by Dr. Mahanta, Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Center for the Environment, IIT-Guwahati, and Mr. Goswami from the Water Resources Department of Assam. Similar heartbreaking erosion sites are common along the Brahmaputra River: The Island of Majuli, Kaziranga National Forest, and the Town of Polashbari are among the notables.

In August of 2009, within a few months of returning from a six-month space mission on the International Space Station, Assam's "jonwai", Astronaut Mike Fincke (married to Renita Saikia, daughter of Rupesh and Monju Saikia),was assigned to his first U.S. Space Shuttle mission, STS-134.
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Mike's previous two launches were from Kazakhstan on Russian rockets, so this opportunity to launch from Florida on a U.S. space vehicle is very exciting. The primary payload for this flight is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 (AMS-02). The AMS-02 is a particle physics detector which contains a large permanent magnet. The AMS-02 unit is designed to search for antimatter and the origin and structure of dark matter. The mission will mark the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour and will be the final flight of the Space Shuttle program. Mike's training is very intense which includes training for a couple of spacewalks. This mission has been delayed from July 2010 to November 2010, so Mike and Renita are enjoying the extra time they are getting to spend together with their family.
Mike FinckesFamilyRenita Chandra Tarali Surya

On March, 2010, a group of six students from Maria Public School, Guwahati attended the United Nations International Student Conference in New York City. This year’s conference topic was, Bio Ethics: Striking a Balance. Led by teacher, Aparna Khanikar, the the six students consisting of: Boris Sindhu Kalita, Uddhab Choudhury, Anali Barua, Rhea Hussain, Bhavna Choudhury, and Pritika Chittaranjan won the 1st prize at the conference. Their project was, The Fume Effects of Pesticides on the Tea Gardens of Assam. Following the conference the group toured NY City, Washington DC, Houston, and Galveston. While in New York, the group visited Brooklyn High School and gave a presentation. In Houston, Majula Datta-Barua hosted the students and arranged for an eventful stay. Col. Mike Fincke, NASA Astronaut arranged for the youths to visit NASA Johnson Space Center where they spent one entire day accompanied by Rashmi Saikia from Houston who videotaped the visit to air through the DY 365 TV channel. As always, Mike was very attentive to these youths and made himself available to answer all their queries. Another highlight of the group’s Houston visit was their tour of MD Anderson Cancer Center. Led by Gautam Barthakur, MD, the group visited the Human Gnome House - a research site, the children’s section of the hospital, and the MD Anderson Library - which is the #1 cancer library in the world. It may well be noted that this venture was made possible due to the incredible leadership and entrepreneurship of Maya Choudhury, Principal of Maria Public School. On behalf of the Southwest Chapter of AANA, we thank Manjula for hosting the youths from Maria Public School and promoting their educational experience in the US.