With Oasis ’26 right around the corner, the Oasis English Press reached out to Somya Agarwal, the Oasis Coordinator of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), to learn more about the contributions IIChE had planned for the fest.

He explained that the club was essentially a student chapter and was linked to all other colleges affiliated with IIChE. He stated that they conducted a resin stall event during Oasis and technical events during APOGEE, along with organising case competitions and hackathons during the semester. He added that in their event Resin Studio last year, students, professors, and staff came and personalised their own artifacts, including but not limited to keychains, pendants, earrings, fridge magnets and coasters.

Somya mentioned that they used UV resin—sourced from Jaipur—which solidified under UV light, allowing one to customize their piece with flakes, flowers and other decorative materials.

Regarding their ongoing projects, Somya remarked that the club was working on a biosolve device wherein agricultural waste was converted into an absorbent material. He noted that this was their first major project. He mentioned that they collaborated with professors and posted their work on the club’s Instagram page on a regular basis. He further added that they had a webpage, chemicool, where they posted different research projects.

Somya went on to talk about the preparatory work leading up to the fest. He explained that it mostly involved dry runs, since they had to maintain safety during the process, as UV resin, once dried on fingers or clothes, can be a pain to remove. He stated that they had ideated this event last year and had been attracting many participants since then.

He added that last year they had to close registrations early and send 30 percent of the crowd back! He shared that to handle the volume of orders, they took pre-orders and fulfilled them the night after concerts.Talking about his workforce, he noted that bonding with juniors was the best way to bring out their full potential, maintain efficiency and quality of work. For this reason, the club had many meets and organised game nights.

Commenting on his experience, he said it had been a lot of fun overall and that he was looking forward to the fest.