Rexford is a student of Ivan Kozhedub Nation Air-force University who has been honored to experience the 2019 edition of Kharkiv Aviafest. (Screenshoot)
The event is said to occurred on the August 31 – September 1 from 11.00 at Korotich airfield.
KharkivAviaFest – 2019 Program outline
Original aviation numbers, parade
of aircraft, aerobatics with the participation of pilots and aircraft from all
over the country – 6 hours in the sky
Parachutist demonstrations –
teamwork in the air and spectacular touchdowns
Introductory flights and jumps in
tandem with an instructor for
everyone
Air show – an open demonstration
site for airplanes and helicopters
Popular music bands Stereobit and
MANERA
Show of crazy scientists on the
main stage and interactive in a dedicated area
Rally flight at the Korotich
aerodrome
Exhibition of equipment for
emergency response
Retrozone – old and rare auto and
motorcycle equipment, shots from idle weapons, reconstruction of locations of the
Second World War, themed costumes
Exhibition of aircraft models
Exhibition of weapons, shooting
gallery, paintball
Presentation of auto news, action
numbers with the participation of modern cars, test drive
Exhibition of original statues and
sculptures
Art sites
Exhibition of achievements of
science and technology from specialized universities and institutions of
Kharkov
The VI annual Kharkov Aviation Festival will delight guests with a new extensive flight program, an exciting format of ground-based locations, a large number of amazing entertainments and activities, as well as a number of exhibitions of achievements of science and technology, works of culture and art, and most importantly – a friendly and inspiring atmosphere!
Ukrainian Aviation Day and Knowledge Day is celebrated with a grand air show at the Korotich airfield in Kharkov!
Both days on the territory of the Korotich airfield, guests of the holiday will watch a continuous six-hour air show! Aerobatics, colorful demonstrations by paratroopers, new and already beloved aircraft, surprises from the aerobatic team of the Kharkov flying club, single, twin and group aviation numbers in conjunction with the ground program will give unrivaled emotions and inspiration.
Everyone will be able to fulfill their dreams of flying and ascend into the sky with our instructors. Of course, on each festival day we will play three flights – on the An-2, Yak-52 and the jet L-29!
The key event of our holiday is an extensive exhibition of aviation equipment – aircraft flight from all airfields of the country. Communication with aviators and instructors, aircraft designers and technical staff will convince you that flying is not only interesting, but affordable! A bright photo on the background of technology will leave pleasant memories.
On the Day of Knowledge, there is a thematic program on the stage, and on the site is a special territory for schoolchildren and students, where you can participate in interesting contests, test your knowledge in different industries, and acquire everything you need for classes.
KharkivAviaFest – 2019 Program outline
✔ Original aviation numbers, parade of aircraft, aerobatics with the participation of pilots and aircraft from all over the country – 6 hours in the sky
✔ Parachutist demonstrations – teamwork in the air and spectacular touchdowns
✔ Introductory flights and jumps
in tandem with an instructor for everyone
✔ Air show – an open
demonstration site for airplanes and helicopters
✔ Popular music bands Stereobit
and MANERA
✔ Show of crazy scientists on
the main stage and interactive in a dedicated area
✔ Rally flight at the Korotich
aerodrome
✔ Exhibition of equipment for
emergency response
✔ Retrozone – old and rare auto
and motorcycle equipment, shots from idle weapons, reconstruction of locations
of the Second World War, themed costumes
✔ Exhibition of aircraft models
✔ Exhibition of weapons,
shooting gallery, paintball
✔ Presentation of auto news, action
numbers with the participation of modern cars, test drive
✔ Exhibition of original statues
and sculptures
✔ Art sites
✔ Exhibition of achievements of
science and technology from specialized universities and institutions of
Kharkov
✔ Master classes “City of
Masters” – folk crafts, needlework and creative activities
✔ Tw o large food court areas,
relax area
✔ Children’s town,
entertainments and adventures for big and small, quests, games and attractions,
animation, experiments and scientific experiments
✔ Fair with aviation
paraphernalia, items of clothing and souvenirs
✔ Thematic school fair – new books, stationery and everything you need for classes and study
❕ August 31 – September 1 from
11.00 – Korotich airfield ❕
Article aimed to disprove a long-held myth in the field of optics that Bessel beams are self-healing and can reconstruct after all forms of obstructions.
Wits PhD student Nokwazi Mphuthi has won an international prize from the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A), for the best journal article for by emerging researcher in 2018.
Mphuthi, who is a third-year PhD student working on a collaborative project with the Structured light group at Wits and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory: HartRAO, won the prize for an article that she submitted to the journal, entitled “Are Bessel beams resilient to aberrations and turbulence?”.
This article aimed to disprove a long-held myth in the field of optics that Bessel beams are self-healing and can reconstruct in the spatial profile after all forms of obstructions. Bessel beams are a kind of wave form that are non-diffractive in nature, meaning they can maintain their size as they propagate, as opposed to normal light and sound waves that spreads out after being focussed on a small spot.
Mphuthi’s article showed that Bessel beams are in fact not self-healing after encountering phase changing disturbances.
“For Bessel beams to be self-healing, the obstruction needs to be non-transparent and small in relation to the beam size, and this can’t be translated to atmospheric turbulence, which is a phase
Mphuthi built a small aberration disturbance for a Bessel beam in the Structured Light Laboratory in the Physics Department at Wits and found that this obstruction interfered with the beam, which proved that the beam was not self-healing.
Nokwazi Mphuthi rexford west media
She then created a much larger atmospheric disturbance to test the Bessel beams with.
“All the conical waves that create the Bessel beam were disturbed by the atmospheric disturbance, which eliminated any chance of reconstruction (or self-healing) of the beam,” says Mphuthi.
The experiment not only disproved the myth, but also described under which circumstances the self-healing capabilities of Bessel beams are true.
Mphuthi is a PhD student with a BSc in Land Surveying from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As part of her MSc project, she worked on a project in collaboration with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory: HartRAO (South Africa), NASA (USA), and Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France) to develop the first Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) system in the Southern Hemisphere. An extension of the LLR work to increase the efficiency of the system paved the way for collaborations between the Structured Light lab at the University of the Witwatersrand and HartRAO. The project aims to increase the photon return rate of laser ranging systems using structured light.
“Because of the long distance between the Earth and the moon a lot of light is lost due to spreading and atmospheric disturbances, so we approached the Structured Light Laboratory to see if we can improve the system efficiency by using sending structured light beam to the moon instead of the traditional Gaussian beam ,” says Mphuthi.
Increased accuracies in the distances between Earth and the moon can assist in a variety of geophysical research, such as improved tidal predictions.
“While this is not the first LLR system to be built, all current LLR stations are located in the Northern Hemisphere, so to increase the geometry of the ranging network we need some stations in the Southern Hemisphere,” says Mphuthi.
Her work in using structured light for a LLR system continues in the Structured Light Laboratory, where they hope to someday provide a means for sending orbital angular momentum to the Moon.
Mphuthi has also been selected as a finalist for the South African Women in Science awards which will held by the Minister of Science and Technology at Port Elizabeth on the 15 August 2019.
Wandile Msomi takes a quick sight seeing trip in New York
In the age of keyboard rage and populist loudhailers, university student Wandile Msomi has been quietly honing his diplomacy skills to show there is another way – through the subtle art of debate.
At the recent International Youth Diplomacy Conference in Ghana, he was awarded a certificate of excellence for his presentation on child marriages in Africa – and is hoping to be one step closer to realising his dream of becoming the youngest secretary-general of the UN.
2019 Rare Rising Stars, an award which celebrates the academic achievements of the UK’s 10 ‘best’ African and Caribbean students. Credit: Leo Hoang.
It is often said that the moments that change
your life can come when you least expect them.
For the evidence, look no further than the life affirming chance experiences of two Oxford University students who were recently honored as 2019 Rare Rising Stars, an award which celebrates the academic achievements of the UK’s 10 ‘best’ African and Caribbean students.
Presented this year by Oxford University graduate Naomi Kellman, the honours, announced at a House of Commons event sponsored by David Lammy MP, are run by the graduate recruitment firm Rare. By shining a light on the positive impact made by black students in the UK, the team hopes that sharing their achievements will inspire younger generations of all backgrounds to pursue their own dreams and make their mark on a world that hasn’t always made space for them. The judging panel included Kem Ihenacho, Sophie Chandauka, Tia Counts, Tom Chigbo and Trevor Philips OBE.
Dr Chuor de Garang Alier (MD, MMed-OBGY), MSc student in Clinical Embryology at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, and a graduate student of St Hugh’s College, was crowned the overall winner of the 2019 Rare Rising Star Awards, for his work around female infertility and challenging the stigma attached to it.
Warren A Stanislaus, a research
fellow in the Faculty of History at Pembroke College, placed number three in
this year’s honours, and was celebrated for his research in Japanese studies.
While their backstories and research specialisms could not be more different, both were spurred to pursue their professional calling by a combination of talent, sheer determination, and perhaps most important of all, a life changing, chance encounter.
A Sudanese refugee, who has overcome financial and education
hurdles on his career journey, including trying to finish school while living
between internally displaced people’s camps in Sudan and Uganda, Chuor’s
breakthrough moment was triggered by the painful experience of working as a
doctor in South Sudan and not being able to help heartbroken couples beat
infertility.
Fast forward a few years, and thanks to his talent and hard work, Chuor was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Health, Republic of South Sudan, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, and is now an obstetrician and gynaecologist, focused on reducing maternal mortality in South Sudan.
Through his work in the field, including research on sperm cryopreservation, he now has the specialist knowledge needed to help people conceive and potentially reverse their infertility. By using his voice to raise awareness of infertility as a gender equity issue, Chuor is also working to eradicate the social stigma around the condition, highlighting its links to the emotional and physical abuse of women.
Dr Chuor de Garang Alier. Credit: Leo Hoang.
Congratulations on being the number one 2019 Rare Rising Star — How did you feel when you heard the news?
I am humbled to be ‘first among
equals’ and would like to congratulate all those very highly inspiring friends
who received the award as well.
I feel grateful that Rare Recruitment and the sponsors
of the award are involved in sharing our stories in ways that can inspire young
people who are less privileged and do not have the role models they need to
have the courage to dream big.
I wish to acknowledge the key role of my father Mr
Garang Alier Chuor for all the sacrifices he has made to see me through to this
end. Certainly, along the way I have received many gestures of kindness in more
ways than I can ever mention.
I wish to thank the University of Oxford, and British Foreign Office through the Chevening Secretariat, for funding my studies.
Did you always want to be doctor?
I always dreamed of being a
doctor and particularly helping the people of Sudan.
My interest in assisted conception and embryology in
particular was a result of my interactions with couples struggling to have a
child because of infertility. They often had to go away broken-hearted that I
could not help them more, and I grew frustrated by my lack of specialist skills
in this area.
I have, with deep sense of sadness, seen infertility
bringing strain in marriages. This often becomes a gender equity issue,
escalating into emotional and physical abuse of women.
I strongly object to stigmatization, and the notion that, somehow, a man or a woman’s social standing is dependent on their ability to bear children.
Tell us a little more about your research journey?
My research focuses on sperm
cryopreservation and the role of particular nanoparticles in reducing oxidative
stress and probably increase viability of frozen-thawed sperm. I am being
supervised by Dr Helen Townley and Mrs Celine Jones from Dr Kevin Coward group
in the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health.
My stay here in Oxford has exposed me to exceptional scientists including those involved in research such as fertility preservation among pre-pubertal boys and girls who survive cancer following treatment.
Do you have any advice to young people
building their futures in challenging circumstances?
I hope South Sudanese school children currently in
internally displaced people’s camps in my country, and refugee camps in the
neighbouring countries, find my story an inspiration to them and a sign that
these difficult days too shall come to pass — like all the days before them
during my time in similar situations.
And what would you say to anyone
considering a career as a doctor?
My advice to anyone, especially clinically specialised
medical doctors, with interest in translational biomedical research, is to have
clarity of intent and an appreciation of the great value it brings to bedside
clinical practice. That will make the whole experience a meaningful adventure.
On a separate note, my appeal to my sponsors and all well-wishers is to create more opportunities for medical students or doctors from South Sudan and the East African region hosting many displaced South Sudanese to come here for basic and advanced biomedical or clinical training. Integrating clinical-scientist training programs would also be a great addition to the medical schools’ curricula on the African continent.
Without fear of exaggeration, we can say that a relationship between a mother and a child usually ends up being the most important one in an individual’s life.
Probably the first bond established, it usually ends up being the defining one. It influences various areas in life, including love, friendship or even behavior at work.
On 16th July 2019, a fresh Filipino graduate named Paulo John shared a photo from his graduation ceremony of himself and his mother. Except what differentiates Paulo’s photo from all the rest is the fact that the woman posing in the picture is actually a 157cm (5’2″) life-size cutout of Paulo’s late mother.
According to Paulo, his mother always had a very good relationship with her children. She promised Paulo to attend his graduation ceremony, however, she passed away due to pneumonia in August 2016 before she could fulfill her promise.
On his twitter, Paulo Alinsog wrote a caption to go along with the photo: “To my most beautiful mother! Ma, your eldest has graduated I hope you’re happy in the presence of God. I finished school because this is what you wanted. I love you very much.”
His post went viral thrilling everyone, “I really didn’t expect this at all, I just wanna thank everyone and tell them they should always love and honor their parents,”