There have been several different cultural forces at play through the years when it comes to APOGEE. The rise and fall of its popularity amongst students have been the prime motivators for change. The shift of inclination from academia towards a mixed bag of culture and technology has played a major role in shaping the fest into what it is today. In the middle of the tug-of-war between being technical and being popular, APOGEE sits comfortably in equilibrium.

Let us start at the Beginning One Last Time

APOGEE, the annual technical fest of BITS Pilani, was born out of the hallows of Academic Week four decades ago. Created to present and celebrate research and innovation, APOGEE has come a long way from the paper presentation event that it was in its first edition in 1983. With the changing mindset of the BITSian junta, the technological innovations that have changed the world, and the increase in available resources, the events and engagements have evolved significantly beyond the presentation of academic papers, and indeed, beyond the confines of technology.

Ever since its inception, there have been two major standouts in the APOGEE event list: presentation-demonstrations and quizzes. As hard as it is to imagine a tech fest before screens and computers, the technological aspects of the fest were quite evident even then.

Paper presentations at the first APOGEE were a huge hit—there were over 300 submissions, out of which around 150 papers were presented. Back in the day, presentation topics included neural networks and systems engineering, subjects which are still being researched and forayed into today. Quizzes saw a huge footfall, presumably due to lack of digital absorbances available. Venerable external quizmasters conducted the quizzes sans screens. The answers were met with fitting amounts of applause or groaning by the audience and participants alike, clearly showing their investment into the event.

APOGEE ‘89 organized an exhibition called “Enter 2001 A.D. – Exhibition of the Future”. It showcased working models of database software and musical instruments made of microprocessors. One wonders if this was a grim foreshadowing of the era of Dubstep and EDM.

First Dissent

By the beginning of the 90s, there were murmurs of selectivity in the participating population of the now-growing APOGEE. To prevent accusations of turning APOGEE into a fest for “nerds”, the organizing committees decided to appeal to a broader audience with events like treasure hunts, vocabulary tests, croquet, and mock paper presentations. Mithali, an event organized entirely by the Music Club in ’92 as a student-teacher collaboration to open the fest, was a huge hit. Mithali has since become the cultural flagship of APOGEE, with the Music Club now collaborating with the Dance and Mime Clubs. Movie screenings were also introduced in the 90s and continue to this day.

The last decade has seen a shift towards the audience-attracting part of the fest, as is evident from the increase in the number and scale of professional shows. In a technically oriented fest, one would wonder the purpose of musical entertainment and the like, but the fact that these shows possibly draw the heaviest crowds cannot be refuted. Stand-up comedy, a growing part of popular culture and a great crowd-pleaser, has also established itself in the itinerary.

Never Forget Where You Come From

It is, however, as a technical fest that APOGEE truly makes its mark. In the beginning, each discipline’s department had their own presentations, competitions, workshops, and displays. These included COSMOS (by the Physics department), LOGICA (by the Computer Science department), and Laissez Faire (by the Economics department). Industry demonstrations were introduced and regularized over the last decade, and project presentations began as exhibitions from 2014. The rescue demonstration of someone “trapped” in the clock tower—conducted by the National Disaster Response Force—drew an enormous crowd in 2016.

Today, with the ubiquity of phones and laptops, the ever-persistent “nerd” gene has found its eclectic thirst quenched by coding, remote-controlled devices, and robots. These fields of technological pursuit, which now have clubs and events solely dedicated to them, are what keep the technical spirit of APOGEE alive and growing. The last decade has seen the rise of sit-and-code events such as hackathons, the International Coding League, and blind coding. Other events like Robots at War (RAW), Stock Market Simulation, Drone Racing League, and obstacle courses have been crowd-pullers as well.

All and Sundry

To round out the academic portion of the fest, a variety of non-technical events are also conducted. Entrepreneurial events, just like startups, have sprung up in remarkable numbers over the last decade. These include the Student Innovators program, showcasing student inventions from around the country, and Dhiti, a social entrepreneurship competition conducted by NSS and Nirmaan.

Talks, given by professionals from different fields, have been a riveting part of APOGEE, with the first APOGEE witnessing 26 such lectures. There were multiple army demonstrations held in APOGEE 2011, along with a talk by the Vice Chief of Army Staff. The Think Again conclave started in 2012, inviting prominent speakers from around the globe to speak. In APOGEE 2018, Economics & Finance Association held the “BITS Business Conclave” which saw many prominent personalities from the field of economics give talks. ACM conducted a similar event for the field computer science, called DeFrag.

The number of quizzes has also seen a remarkable rise, from two in 1983 to thirteen in 2013. There has been an increase in the number of quizzes catering to niche interests, which has come at the cost of participation in the flagship quizzes, namely OverHead Transmission (OHT) and Brain of BITS (BoB). Specialized quizzes include Fiche and Chips (Computer Science quiz), India Quiz, Doper’s Quiz (a quiz conducted by the Pharma Department, where the answer to each question was a drug), Business Quiz, Jeopardy, Sci-Tech Quiz, Anime Quiz, Mythology Quiz, and a smattering of others.

The Point Being

APOGEE has been 38 years in the making, and all the student bodies and departments involved strive to turn it into one of the best technical festivals in the country. Although the beginnings of the fest were humble, the goal for the future had always been one of extraordinary proportions, not unlike this Institute.

Along with shifting student mindsets, changing public perception and broader avenues to conquer, APOGEE has grown into its present form. This technological extravaganza has (for the most part) stuck to its roots and keeps improving on its core aspects every year, while also dabbling in peripherals of the general engineer’s milieu.