The APOGEE English Press reached out to Saurabh Bhandari, the coordinator of the IEEE BITS Pilani Chapter, for a conversation regarding the Chapter’s plans for the upcoming fest.

Saurabh explained that they are organising three events this fest. Micromouse – the kernel event of IEEE – requires participants to make a bot that locates its way through an unknown maze; the bot with the shortest time being declared the winner. Saurabh mentioned that this will be the first time Micromouse would be happening on a large scale after 2019. They will host two new events this year: Prisoners’ Dilemma, an event based on game theory, and Silicon Chip Smackdown, an AI poker competition. He explained that Silicon Chip Smackdown is a famous event hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) every year, and they have drawn inspiration from it. 

Coming to their preparations for the event, Saurabh said that the club had started ideating in September and is now all set to host the events. They have made the maze for Micromouse and websites for the other events.

When asked about any issues they faced, Saurabh said that apart from some problems with the bot, everything was going smoothly, and the CoStAA had been very cooperative. 

Talking about how the Chapter has changed through the years, Saurabh said that a few years ago, the chapter was “a EEE-only club,” but now they are more focussed on Machine Learning (ML). Apart from fest work, the Chapter hosts and takes part in many inter-college competitions and does research. 

In conclusion, Saurabh encouraged everyone to participate in the events and said that they have tried to make them as fun and “less technical” as possible.