STS Students present at astronomy club by Hassan K. '25

This past June, Hassan K. ’25 and his brother Khalil K. ’23 attended the annual general meeting of the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada). They were presenters at the meeting and were going to present their projects. Khalil completed his project in 2017 and Hassan did his this year. Both projects were presented at the Calgary Youth Science Fair (CYSF) and won awards. 

Khalil’s project was called ‘The Loopy Explanation of Gravity’ which focused on how quantum theory and general relativity contradict each other and how we can find a solution. Khalil mainly collected his information through books, websites and videos. Hassan’s project was called ‘Have You Seen a Neutron Star Wave?’ which focused on the link between neutron stars and gravitational waves. Hassan used articles and books, websites, videos and also contacted a number of mentors including the Nobel Prize winner, Kip Thorne.

At the CYSF, the projects were put on tri-folds, however, when they went to the RASC AGM, they re-configured them to posters. At the AGM, there was a gallery of all the posters and the speakers stood beside them. The audience walked through and stopped at posters to talk and listen to the speaker’s presentation. They would ask questions during or after the presentation was done. Sometimes Hassan and Khalil would have very long conversations. The people that came to the AGM were either RASC members or people that had bought tickets. The AGM was lots of fun.

Both Hassan and Khalil are looking forward to the opportunity to create another outstanding research-based project for the CYSF.