Young Researchers’ Circle Announcement & Activities
The Young Researchers’ Circle (YRC) is a voluntary, independent, collaborative, non-profit circle of young researchers/students that was founded in Spring 2020 by S4W-Nepal with an aim to promote and support citizen science-based water resource monitoring and management in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of Nepal. The motto and objective of YRC is “Rejuvenating research among young aspiring minds” and YRC seeks to accomplish this via events, outreach programs, involvement in S4W-Nepal’s activities, and various networking opportunities.
The current ongoing activities of YRC include participation in S4W-Nepal’s Monsoon Expedition 2020, publication of a bi-monthly newsletter and a weekly Environmental News Refresher[1], and analysis of S4W-Nepal’s data. YRC plays a crucial role in the Monsoon Expedition in building a strong network of Citizen Scientists throughout the Kathmandu Valley (and other parts of Nepal) and motivates them to get involved in water-related research activities. YRC intends to build a good relationship between different colleges of Nepal, mobilize graduate-level students in water-related research, and help develop their skillset for the design, implementation, completion, and communication of research projects.
To date, YRC has published its first issue of the bimonthly newsletter ‘Young Researchers’ and six issues of the weekly Environment News Refresher. YRC has also conducted two online trainings, one on Open Data Kit (ODK) and one on ArcGIS, for the interested members of Young Researchers’ Circle for building their research skillset. Furthermore, YRC celebrated World Environment Day on June 5th by organizing an article writing competition among YRC members on the topic “Water as a whole to sustain biodiversity”. Finally, YRC has also conducted a video campaign in order to promote and conserve biodiversity.
In the near future, YRC plans to conduct webinars, facilitate managing and supporting conferences/events conducted by water-related organizations, become involved in various research activities and publications, and more. The YRC initiative has thus far been successful, and these new ideas will hopefully allow for its continued success and growth!
You can find out more about the Young Researchers’ Circle through the S4W-Nepal Facebook page, by contacting S4W-Nepal at: s4w-nepal@smartphones4water.org or by contacting YRC directly at youngresearcherscircle@gmail.com .
Meet Sagar Gosai
Sagar Gosai has been an active citizen scientist with S4W-Nepal for a long time and recently became vice-secretary of the Young Researchers’ Circle. Let’s hear a little bit from him about his experience as a citizen scientist and with S4W-Nepal.
Citizen Scientist’s Story
Namaste, I am Sagar Gosai. I am a third-year bachelor’s student studying Environmental Science at Khwopa College, Bhaktapur. I am an enthusiastic youth with a keen interest in the field of drinking water quality and its management. I was motivated and inspired to be a citizen scientist and got involved with S4W-Nepal through an outreach program conducted at my college. I have been actively collecting daily precipitation data for more than two years now, and have also been collecting daily evaporation data for the past six months.
S4W-Nepal has developed a low-cost gauge (each costs about $1.50 for materials and construction) to record these measurements, and these gauges are initially made available to citizen scientists by the organization for free. Considering the plastic pollution issues happening both locally and globally, I really appreciate the idea of reusing and repurposing plastic water bottles for measurement as well as the cost-effective data transmission methods through mobile application Open Data Kit (ODK) Collect. S4W-Nepal has made me aware of the importance of data collection and also helped me develop the capability to easily communicate with other fellow citizen scientists and local people about the data collection procedures and the importance of the data. I am very happy to be a part of S4W-Nepal and excited and eager to know how the data collected are being used in making wise water resource management decisions.
[1] The weekly Environmental News Refresher provides an overview of local, national, and international environmental news stories with some commentary.
