APOGEE is the fest where associations come together to give the audience a glimpse of the functioning of clubs and teams in the form of interactive and informative events. One of the many societies the APOGEE English press interviewed was the Biological Sciences Association (Bio Assoc), coordinated by Tanishq Jain.

The Bio Assoc is a representation of the Department of Biological Sciences. It conducts events to build a relationship with faculty members and induct Biology in fun events. For APOGEE, there will be two events–Murder Mystery which will be conducted on April 2, from 1 AM to 5 AM, and Dexter’s Lab which is to be held on April 1 and 2, from 12 PM to 6 PM. Apart from these events, there will be two exhibitions in the form of stalls.

The Murder Mystery is going to be a campus-wide treasure hunt. A story will be given to the contestants initially, subsequently they will be provided with clues to find the murderer. The level of difficulty of the clues will increase progressively as the hunt proceeds and, as the name of the association suggests, the clues will be biology-related. Dexter’s Lab is an escape room where two teams are pitted against each other in an enclosed lab. They have to perform experiments and solve clues to “escape the room”.

The preliminary preparation began in December 2022. In the weeks leading up to APOGEE, they have been focusing on its execution. Tanishq mentioned that the association was trying to make the experience more immersive as compared to last year, where they made use of props such as a “dead body”. This year, they are trying to build on that by including more props (an actual knife, for example) and using makeup. For Dexter’s Lab, there are three experiments which would all be requiring specific equipment. Fortunately enough, for the assoc, all the equipment will be provided by the department itself, cutting down on the external budget.

There were a few obstacles during the ideation of the Murder Mystery. As the event was a grand success last year, it was difficult for members to come up with an innovative story and start from scratch.

To conclude the chat, Tanishq mentioned that it was a hectic job to be the coordinator, but that it also helped him grow as a person. He felt that he was able to handle all of his responsibilities and further stated that fests are a time for everyone to enjoy. So, if there were feuds among clubs, APOGEE would be the perfect time to ignore the past and start afresh. In his words, the best idea was to “just have fun and do fun things”.