The coordinator of the Civil Engineering Association of BITS Pilani, Saran Gopal, claims that the association’s activity had gone down last year, but the members have worked hard to revive the enthusiasm of the members, as well as the reputation of the club.

The association conducts three events during APOGEE, where the first one, “Crazy Bridge” is a competition where the participants will be provided ice-cream sticks, thermocol and other pieces of scrap, out of which a bridge has to be made. The best bridge will be the one with the weight within its tolerance capacity. “House of Cards” will be a game where the participants will make structures out of playing cards. This will be organised mainly by the second years of the association. “Smart City Planning” is yet another event related to planning based on a problem statement.

Joking about the divide between APOGEE and Oasis, and about a sparse participation in tech fests, he says that the senior batches don’t bother attending events irrespective of them happening in Oasis or APOGEE or being fun-oriented or academia-oriented. He also claims that the outstation participants that attend the fest do not really show interest in all events.

At the same time, he also says that despite the decline, a better fest has been promised by the CoStAA, as they are working hard to make this APOGEE more popular than its predecessors.

When asked about his thoughts on APOGEE seeing an increase in the number of cultural events, he says that from a general student’s point-of-view, the more the number of prof shows and fun events, the more APOGEE moves towards becoming another Oasis. But this move is targeted at increasing participation, and hence is welcome in his eyes, adding that the students who criticise the fest and its events, must first attend events in order to understand that this fest, too, is worth their attention.