Washington, DC

The winner of the Asia-Pacific region of the YouTube Space Lab 2012, and one of the six global winners of this competition,   Sachin S. Kukke called on Ambassador Nirupama Rao on March 23, 2012 and shared his experience of conceptualizing and carrying out innovative scientific experiments. At the meeting, Sachin, a student of mechanical engineering at the BMS College for Engineering in Bangalore (India), was accompanied by Lee Hunter, head of brand marketing for YouTube, and Claudio Lilienfeld, senior policy manager for Asia Pacific at Google.

Warmly congratulating Sachin on his highly commendable achievement, Ambassador remarked that in India - a country engaged in rapid economic development - "students like Sachin symbolize the hopes and the potential of a dynamic, resurgent India and it's young population".  She encouraged Sachin to pursue his goals and interests in the specialized area of aerospace engineering and wished him the very best for the years ahead.

Sachin’s experiment explores transfer of heat in ferrofluid - a special liquid that gets magnetized when subjected to a magnetic field. The study can benefit development of advanced cooling and heat transfer systems. Ambassador Rao was informed that nearly 40% of the total number of entries from all over  the world came from India alone – an indicator of the skills and level of interest in the field of exploration of outer space among the youth in India. 

YouTube and Lenovo, in cooperation with Space Adventures, NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) had announced a worldwide challenge “YouTube Space Lab” in October last year, asking students of 14-18 year age group to design a new scientific experiment that can be performed in outer space.

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