With Oasis right around the corner, the Oasis English Press spoke to the coordinator of the Mathematics Association, Kushagra Singhvi, in a pre-fest interview to gain some insight into the workings of the club during the fest.

The association organises a variety of events throughout the year, including ‘Gambling Mathematics’ during APOGEE, the Annual Mathematics Olympiad for students of classes VII to XII, and faculty-student interactions with the Mathematics Department. The recruitments for the club are conducted across several rounds. Students from all disciplines are invited to apply to be a part of the association.  

Kushagra stated that the Association was organising one event this Oasis — ‘Sherlock vs. Moriarty’ — a treasure hunt where participants played on the side of Sherlock or Moriarty and unravelled a central mystery by solving a series of mathematical and logical puzzles.  

Elaborating on the preparatory steps for the event, Kushagra explained that they started with developing a storyline to showcase both sides of the story. They then came up with puzzles linked with places on campus and set up QR codes that would allow the scanner to view the next problem. 

Talking about his expectations from the event, Kushagra said that the club expected an audience participation of at least 1500. He shared that the extensive number of participants had caused a technical issue with the QR codes in the previous edition of Oasis, which was resolved by the team for this year’s event.

Kushagra spoke about his experience as a coordinator. He mentioned that despite the unfamiliar responsibilities, he enjoyed learning new things through his role. He expressed his amusement over team names such as ‘Jagga Jasoos’ during the ‘Sherlock vs. Moriarty’ event.  He believed that the clues would allow the freshers to explore the campus with their friends and socialise.

Kushagra’s parting message was for all BITSians to participate and enjoy themselves to the fullest in the fest.