“I don’t believe that technical necessarily implies machines, even in an engineering college.”

These were the words of Devansh Chaudhary, the CoSTAAn of the Department of Paper Evaluation and Presentation as he explained how the university is looking forward to promote humanitarian sciences and management through the platform that APOGEE is capable of providing. He does not subscribe to the ideology that the fest is becoming too cultural; it is only catering to the simple economic factor of supply and demand, as the audience needs to be retained as well. The micro-fiction workshop being held as a part of the lit-fest is diversifying the fest and the areas of impact. As for the attitude of the general BITSians who think of going home or going on a trip during the fest, Devansh thinks that this is a very dangerous proposition that has trickled down to the newer batches. “All the CoSTAAns have tried, but they see no immediate solution to this, it is difficult to suddenly awaken the whole campus to this”, were his words. He is also saddened by the critical attitude of those BITSians who take the fest rather lightly, and when Prof Shows are added to give these four days a more fest-y feel; they disapprove of the un-technical nature of the tech fest itself. In his opinion, APOGEE is a place where people can showcase what they have been working on for almost a year, use this opportunity to learn something from those who come and deliver these talks and enjoy themselves while doing it.

Devansh also shed some light on how the process of working for APOGEE 2017 and trying new things was enlightening for him and his department. He explained that as they held discussions with professors and conducted seminars for the interested BITSians, the professors explained to him that with the limited knowledge that undergraduates possess, writing papers without contacting the right professors or researching extensively can be a fruitless exercise. Most of the review papers are simply summaries of the information that is found on various websites on the topic that BITSians write on the last day just for the sake of doing it. Most papers are done last minute, as was evident from the fact that 210 out of 280 abstracts were submitted in the last six hours before the extended deadline. The department realises that the focus must shift from being event-centric to promoting research on campus.

Devansh thinks that ‘Think again’ has created a certain reputation for itself, which can unfortunately also cause the crowds to favour a mainstream-popular speaker. The CoSTAA wishes to call more technical speakers, but inadequate crowd response forces them to stick to politicians and other mainstream figures. Dr. E.S. Pillai, the father of the BRAHMOS missile had been confirmed a month ago, but had to cancel due to other commitments. While the department was looking forward to having him here, they were apprehensive whether people will attend his talk or not. “I got a faint ray of hope when I attended the Narlikar talk to find the LTC hall filled to the brim. But then again, he is a very big name in India’s scientific industry, so I still don’t know how many people appreciate the kind of lectures that we aim to have”, he said.

Devansh believes that for the future editions of APOGEE, his department will aim at spreading more awareness about the intricacies of writing a paper. He also hopes that the future CoSTAAns will make APOGEE bigger, better and more appealing to the BITSian junta.