E-Paper
COEP to inaugurate Geology Museum with virtual lab on September 19
Punekars will soon be able to see, feel and get to know about the rarest of rare rocks, minerals, fossils and crystals preserved for the past many years at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) as the university is all set to inaugurate its very own ‘Geology Museum’ on September 19
Punekars will soon be able to see, feel and get to know about the rarest of rare rocks, minerals, fossils and crystals preserved for the past many years at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) as the university is all set to inaugurate its very own ‘Geology Museum’ on September 19. The old principal’s bungalow inside the varsity campus built in 1892 has been turned into a museum. The ‘Geology Museum’ will be one-of-its-kind where not only engineering students and researchers from COEP and other engineering colleges can conduct research but the public, particularly school students, can pay a visit, that too for free.
“Anyone doing their graduation, post-graduation or any kind of research in Geology can come here to study the rarest of rare rocks and minerals in this museum. It will be officially inaugurated on September 19 at the hands of our university board chairman Prataprao Pawar, and the board has extended phenomenal support in setting up the museum in very little time,” said professor Sandeep Meshram, associate professor at COEP university, who happens to be the brain behind the bungalow-turned-museum.
On display at the colonial style bungalow-turned-museum will be over 12,000 different species of rocks, minerals and crystals. Of the collection, around 50 to 60 rocks are extremely rare such as those formed first on the Earth’s crust while 150 types of rocks are of the igneous variety. Similarly, there are 60 kinds of fossils as well as crystals like Rosy Quartz, Smoky Quartz, Amethyst, Stilbite and Stibnite. The rocks, minerals and crystals are of different colours and textures and will shine in the museum’s yellow lights, offering a feast for the eyes. Visitors will be able to pick out and feel the exhibits and understand their nature.
All specimens of rocks, minerals and crystals exhibited at the museum will also be uploaded online as part of a virtual laboratory so that students and anyone from anywhere across the globe can view and get to know about them. “We are in the process of uploading all our specimens of different types of rocks, minerals, fossils and crystals on the virtual lab. We have already got an approval from the central ministry of education virtual labs department. As such, students not only from our COEP university but also from other colleges and universities in the state can study and carry out research here,” said Meshram.
“Apart from the actual museum, we are soon going to start a light-and-music show in which students can see rocks and minerals on their screens, get information about them, and experience and handle them at the museum,” Meshram added.
