The Department of Controls plays a central role in the running of a fest. With APOGEE starting early this year, the department has been toiling hard to ensure that matters go smoothly. Himangshu Baid, the CoStAAn of the Department of Controls, elaborated on the build up to the fest and the workings of his department in a recent interview.

‘It has been challenging and fun to work with the CoStAA body’, says Himangshu. There has been a sizeable increase in both the budget and sponsorship. The budget is 52 lakh as compared to 44 lakh last year; the Department of Sponsorship has quoted sponsorship which is more than the combined sponsorship received from the last three editions of the fest. This has given the CoStAA space to introduce changes to the fest. Two exhibitions have been arranged – Mitrabot (the world’s most emotionally intelligent robot and) and a Mind Control exhibition. Also, the Hackathon is being revived for this edition of APOGEE and a new robotics event, Robosoccer, is being introduced.

The Department started working for the fest in November last year. It was decided that the rules booklet would be drafted early so that outstation participants could have more time to decide on the events that they would like to participate in. Himangshu himself stayed up through the nights during the last semester’s comprehensive examinations to finish the draft. Event pitching was also preponed by two months to November.

The work of the Department is divided into autonomous job streams – Judge Sheets, Travels, Requisitions, Prize Money, and Certificates. There are around four members in every job stream. The Department has been holding work sessions every day. Apart from supervising them, Himangshu has to attend the grueling CoStAA meets. ‘Every time the CoStAA has to make a decision, it takes about four to five hours’, remarks Himangshu.

One of the major issues of last year’s APOGEE was the scheduling of events. MapMyIndia had asked for an audience of 1,000 in the inauguration ceremony which was scheduled at 10 A.M. on a Sunday morning, a requirement which unfortunately went unfulfilled. Another issue was the clashing of events of a similar nature. In order to tackle this, Controls decided to club events under groups and space each of them throughout the duration of the fest.

While one might assume that all this work would be overwhelming for one person to handle, Himangshu looks forward to slogging through a few more days for APOGEE 2018.