The APOGEE English Press sat down with Sannidh Kumar, the APOGEE Joint Coordinator for CRISS to discuss their preparations for the upcoming fest. 

Sannidh narrated that the ideation for their events started back in December. He explained that the initial plan was to conduct Robowars and discussions regarding the same continued well into the semester. Just last month, the CoStAA informed them that American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) would be organising it instead. He expressed his disheartenment over the fact that their three-year legacy of organising Robowars could not be continued. He acknowledged that the event had not been up-to-the-mark last year, but they had planned on improving it this year. Despite citing previous experience, they were fruitless in their attempts to convince the CoStAA. 

Without losing momentum, they redirected their efforts into planning a 3-D printing workshop that they have been organising for the past two years. They plan on giving a hands-on experience to all the attendees by explaining the entire process of making a model from scratch. He mentioned that they will also be giving free custom key chains to all the attendees as a souvenir. In addition, they have planned a Tech-Expo wherein they will showcase the ongoing and past projects of all the technical teams on campus. 

Sannidh mentioned that a major obstacle he experienced as Coordinator was to keep his workforce motivated after losing Robowars. He added that they had to scale down some events due to budgetary restrictions but otherwise, the preparation went smoothly.

He noted that they made every effort to be innovative and bounce back with alternative events. He said that he was eager to see how Robowars would be conducted and was excited to see what opportunities the Tech-Expo might bring to all the clubs. 

As parting words, he encouraged all his juniors to make good use of the opportunities, technical knowledge, and interesting events held in APOGEE. He added that there is a good amount of prize money in these events and joked that, ‘It’s a good chance to pay off all those SU bills.’ He also expressed his enthusiasm on the artists line-up for the professional shows in APOGEE and urged the juniors to enjoy the fest to its fullest.