“I don’t believe I can really do without teaching. The reason is, I have to have something so that when I don’t have any ideas and I’m not getting anywhere I can say to myself, “At least I’m living; at least I’m doing something; I am making some contribution – it’s just psychological.” - Richard Feynman

Courses

• Git: Taught to freshly hired software programmers, interns, senior programmers and academicians who care! No notes or presentations are available as I use a board for these lectures. I strongly believe Git is one of those tools where it is hard to make progress without understanding the internals. So, I use the board to illustrate what changes happen internally due to each command.

• Python Programming: Taught Python to M.Sc. / Ph.D. students at various workshops. The resources used by me in these workshops are available on the Resources page.

• Data Modelling : A short 5 hour course taught to visiting students. Topics covered: Basics of data modelling, principle of maximum likelihood, Chi-square statistics, error estimation using properties of chi-square, methods of minimizing chi-square. Recently attempted to summarize the 5 hour course in a one hour seminar.

• IRAF: Lab sessions covering the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF), a software suite frequently used by optical astronomers. I’ve taught this as a four hour lab session to many batches of students at various workshops. Topics frequently covered: the IRAF interface, quick photometry of stars, isophotal modelling of galaxies, basic image reduction / processing. Some of my resources are available on the Resources page.

• Virtual Observatory: Basics of VO, use cases etc.

Project Guidance

For various reasons, a Ph.D. student does not get to be a sole guide or supervisor to B.Sc / M.Sc. students and thus for almost all projects listed below, I’ve have played formally the role of a co-supervisor. But I’ve only listed projects where my contributions have been substantial.

• “Galaxy Surface Photometry” by Kamalika Nath, IIT Kanpur, Indian Academy of Science Fellowship Project

• “Application of Virtual Observatory Tools” by Essna Ghose, Fergusson College - B.Sc. Final Year Project

• “Study of Galaxy Structure Using Isophote Fitting Technique” by Parita Mehta, Mumbai University, IUCAA Vacation Student Programme project

• “Study Of Correlation Between Properties Of Galaxies And Their Supermassive Blackholes Using Mid-infrared Imaging Techniques” by Michelle George, Manipal Institute of Technology, BTech Final Year Project

• “Study of Isophotal Shapes of Galaxies” by Sanya Matta, Delhi University, IUCAA Vacation Student Programme Project

• "The Dust Content in S0 Galaxies" by Prerak Garg, Pune University, MSc Final Year Project

• "Estimating the Distance to Star Clusters Using Photometry" by Aarya Patil, Pune Institute of Computer Technology

• "Light Curve Analysis and Visualization" by Kunal Gulati, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune