It is not just classes that have gone online in this pandemic season. So have college fests. Techno Main Salt Lake, the Sector V campus of Techno India, is holding its techno-management festival Edge 21 on July 10, 11 and 12 virtually, rather than on its main campus.
"Most colleges have not managed to hold a fest since the start of the pandemic. But for a year and half, students are sitting at home. We need to inspire them to innovate,” said Swayam Das, a third year student residing at Falguni Abasan who is in the organising committee.
Edge 21, organised by the college’s science and technology club Geekonix, will have 33 events spread across 11 categories. Despite the pandemic, the prize money pool is a robust Rs 4.5 lakh, to be distributed in cash and kind. To encourage online participation, organisers have announced cash awards for the top five in certain events and prizes in kind to the top eight in some others.
This is the second time that the fest is being held online. A core group of 11 fourth year students is calling the shots. “We need to increase our reach. Commercial viability of an online event is much less in the sponsors' eyes. We are not getting the usual title sponsors,” said Sayan Roy of BD Block, who is heading the sponsorship committee.
Even then, things are better than last July when the fest went online for the first time. “The publicity campaign has to be run virtually but people then were still struggling with video conferences. But now everyone is used to the idea. No sponsor asked me to meet in person,” Sayan added.
Another stream of revenue generation is registration fee for participants, ranging from Rs 65 to Rs 30. “Ours is a non-profit initiative. All earnings are ploughed back to the event itself and our social work,” added fest co-convenor Anubhav Talukdar.
Workshops on coding, robotics and gaming are held free of registration cost for freshers about two-three months before the fest. “Newcomers have a lot of enthusiasm but not much knowledge. We teach them things that are not part of their syllabus -- coding, programming, web design, software development, cryptography... It helps them get jobs later. We learnt from our seniors too,” said Anubhav, who has returned to his Guwahati home from where he is attending classes online and managing his fest organisational responsibilities.
The last batch that spent seven months on campus before lockdown and are now in the second year learnt to make autonomous robots. “The knowledge passed down by seniors is very handy. In last year's fest, we had to make a robot to help people in the pandemic. I made a Social Distance Keeper,” recalled Swayam, who is now part of the robotics division of Geekonix that is organising the robotics contests. “We will hold it over Webex.”
Robotics is a key area of interest in the Techno India fest with handsome prize money. “We need to ensure that the designs given to replicate in the contests are doable at home. Also for events like Robot Race and Robot Soccer, participants have to prepare the obstacle course at home using what they have at hand,” said Swayam.
Another popular event requires civil engineering skills to design a bridge with popsicle sticks. “The winner is the best design which can take the maximum load. In Edge 19, I had seen designs that could take 40-50kg load. Getting ice cream sticks at home is possible. Participants will design the bridge on Zoom in our virtual presence,” says Swayam.
The organisers are trying to leverage the virtual status of the fest to increase reach. “We are trying to go international. Last year, our photography contest got entries from France,” says Anubhav.
Bhoomi frontman Soumitra Ray, Olympian shooter Joydeep Karmakar and wildlife photographer Rathika Ramasamy will be the guest speakers this year at Edge Talks, on July 10 at 7pm, July 11 at 6pm and July 12 at 7pm respectively. “One can log in free to our Facebook page to listen to them,” says Swayam. Stand-up comedian Harsh Gujral will perform on July 10 at 8pm.
The students of Techno Main Salt Lake do social work under Edge Deeds. “We organise a walk to create awareness about social issues. We spend a day at an orphanage or an old age home, have lunch with the inmates and gift books, food packets, crayons etc. We have even installed a sanitary napkin vending machine in our college,” said Anyesha Halder, who is heading the fest’s member acquisition team. The walk could not take place this year amid the pandemic. “But we did sanitise our college campus and the orphanage Nabatara, where we also distributed masks and sanitisers,” said the IA Block girl.
Edge 21 will be inaugurated on its Facebook page on Friday at 4pm.
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