Navya Bhatnagar, the CoStAAn from the Department of Controls, took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to the APOGEE English Press about their preparations for APOGEE ’22. Navya explained that the department handles the logistics for all the events during the fest and coordinates amongst the clubs. It plays a central role in the decision-making process of the fest, she added. The first-year students are divided into various job streams—Requisitions, Judge Sheets, Travels, Certificates, and Reprography. The second-year students work for the Scheduling, Prize Money, and Projects and Stage Events job streams. ‘This year, however, we have six first-years instead of the usual ten, which could be a challenge,’ she stated.

Navya spoke about her experience as a CoStAAn, comparing it to a rollercoaster ride because of shorter deadlines and increased workload. According to her, this year’s theme represents discovering a new world, ‘which is externally controlled by another world.’ She elaborated, ‘This is very similar to how things are going right now, where you have your world and something else controlling it.’ However, she feels that CoStAA has not been able to integrate the theme into the events as well as they could have, primarily due to the lack of time.

Talking about the difference between the previous editions of APOGEE and this one, Navya said that there is a ‘considerable knowledge gap’ about the working of the fest as the current workforce has not witnessed an in-person APOGEE before. They have been in constant contact with their seniors who worked for previous editions of APOGEE to fill the knowledge gap. Navya added that another challenging factor was the uncertainty surrounding the timeline of the fests due to the third wave and delayed campus reopening, which led to most clubs and departments not doing any work for the fest for some time. She elaborated, ‘This time could have been very well utilised for APOGEE, but we didn’t know when and how the fest would be conducted.’ CoStAA had instructed the coordinators of different clubs and departments to pitch both in-person and online events to mitigate this uncertainty.

This time, the CoStAA is trying to increase the participation of students in various events by conducting more pre-fest events and making all of them more accessible to both outstation and BITS students, by keeping a low barrier to entry for technical events. She urged all BITSians to attend the events and explore various fields like literature, technology, entrepreneurship, and engineering. Concluding the interview, she stated, ‘Most importantly, enjoy the fest as this one is being conducted offline after a long time.’