DAY
ElZ.
ISSUE DZ
SATURDAY.ZLtTH DCTDBER
THE FIRST DAY OF AXIS '09
An Epiphany
It's finally over!! All those months of meticulous planning hove finally borne fruit, and the lsi doy has delivered everything it had promised and more . The incipient steps of AXIS '09 have been very encouraging ; AXIS '09 couldn" be more real or more radiant. The doy sow some old war horses and some new recruits working simultaneously to give AXIS a grand opening .
Two of the mosl populor and proven events in AXIS thol were expected to be the major crowd pullers, delivered and how! The entire YNIT auditorium roored and mooned in unison according to the varying stock markets and the news
flashes thol were being telecasted during Wallstreel and the mechanical bois hummed owoy am idst thunderous opplauses and quirky commentary in the Mechatron event. Aport from these traditional events, the day also sow the core events of RevENGG, Continuum, Cold War and Xplore drawing significant crowds and proving to be substantial successes. The day also had a lot in store for the technically not-sa-well equipped. Who's The Boss, the highly awaited management event (more for the organizers than the event itself), proved to be a resounding success with some outstation participants participating in it even without knowing what it was. Mofun, the most stressful event of all (ironical, it being a gaming event), somehow miraculously managed to exercise crowd control amidst confusion and controversies of magnanimous proportions. Also, adding to the glitz and glamour of AXIS were the two new but completely different from each other events of the air show and the hacking workshop. One razzled and dazzled and dared to flyaway into orbit, while the other threatened to turn on entire 120 strong audience into 'ethical cyber criminals'. As a slight deviation from the normal 'opposites attract' theory, this time the oppos ites attracted not each other but huge mobs of their respective enthusiasts. Moreover, the light graffiti event received on over enthusiastic response, resulting in an on the spot stampede. All in all, though the day lurned out 10 be a shade of its former self (due to obvious reasons), it has done enough 10 spur the resurgent spirit in organizers and participants alike and to make them look forward to a newer, brighter tomorrow strewn with fresher challenges and opportunities. The revolution has only just begun ..
Air show It was a perfect setting, dear skies, grassy grounds with a light cool breeze and the turnout for the air show was overwhelming. We had juvenile commentary by Utsav and a very enthusiastic audience chanting "Crash! Crash!". The reason for all the chanting is because we, at VNIT, appreciate failure more than success. The air show comprised of many plywood planes and motors, not to forget the 'special' lotus plane which was unfair judging by the foci it was congress who had just won the elections. There was a flying saucer too which looked like a plane in a large tutu . There were other more normal planes such as the electric delta and the eskido . There was a helicopter too which kepi continuously oscillating and spewing smoke, adversely affecting sentiments of spectators and environmentalists. On a serious nole, the remote controlled pieces of plywood performed a series of swoops and dizzy manoeuvres like snap rolls, barrel rolls and split S's .
Wall Street
The bull bear regime is bock! Welcome to the virtual world of stocks and dividends, a verisimilitude of what currently rules the world . A charged up dark atmosphere, with block shapes scurrying about, hurrying with registrations, while the ' brokers' brush up lost minute mathematics, cursing a shortage o f calculators. As the long queue of over enthusiastic participants (mostly first years) continued to budge sl ugg ishly, Utsav with a larger-than-self backpack, took hold of the mic to welcome everyone to the event. There was tension in the air and chaos spelled its reign, as one of the brokers, Rudula Meddy(name changed on request),broke' down under the massive build up of numbers and fjgures @_@. For once in the campus though, money flowed freely . Business aptitude unknown to most came forth in some of the participants, who were only too happy to discover them. With news videos, scrolls, updates, bulletins and 450 participants, all in one day, the first day of Wallstreet was without doubt, a success.
realization dawns ... • A TV with a remote control is more fun than a plane with one. A t least your neck doesn ' t hurt when you watch it for an hour. • Popularity is directly proportional to number of treats taken. No of treats taken is directly proportional to cheapness. Therefore, popularity is cheap. • Putting up posters is not as easy as it sounds . Pins are sharp. They hurt. • The best time to learn to ride a bike is
during AXIS. There are plenty of them around . • There's Newton's, Planck's, Kepler's and then there is Murphy's la w. If things can go bad, they will. You can never find a b ike when you need one. • The most popular place in a tech fest is where you can find food, even if it's not for free. • You truly realize the wo rth of someone or something once it's token away from you. Blocks 6, 7 internet, we miss you ... • The AXIS tee has replaced the dress code as the distinguishing feature to recognize a first year. • Any -one w ho is wea r ing an AXIS tee is certainly not an organizer.
Mech-a-tron
Industry Defined Problem Bubbling with enthusiasm, we entered the lOP event w hich had already begun in full stea m . We entered th e mundane seminar hall hoping to be back-benchers, but soon realized that there w a s on ly a back·bench. Since the topiC given was a bit too departmental spec ifi c, we saw a lot of in-house talent, w hich was basically a tripartite competition. It hod the highest external participation with a whopp ing 33 %. The event was judged by the prominent Mr. Millind
Everyone drew in their breaths as the robot dropped off a height and landed on the marbles below. 10 seconds later, the buzzer sounded and the participants picked their car up and left. Welcome to mech-a-tron, the robotics event that took place in the computer science stage in on arena portly mode by the archi deportment. Departmental harmony at its best. One can imagine the enthusiasm generated, as a result of which even the core graced the event for more than their ten minute ritual. It was a toast to the spirit of strategy and adventure as the heroic cars bottled their way through water, marbles and a 300 incl ine.
Chiltawar. CEO, SEE-Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Dr.
Sachin
Mandavgane,
Professor,
Chemical
Engg Dept, VNIT Nagpur. The judges seemed well versed in the subject and th e relevance of the problem statement was well appreciated.
Ethical Hacki ng 'Ethics' are deeply embedded in the ' human' soul and not quite so expected to be seen amongst the newsletter team. Surprising ly enough, VNIT's AXIS' 09 did its best to propagate the idea. And what a beller way to do it than holding on Ethical Hacking workshop? The first workshop taught the basics of hacking . People enrolled were taught to hock into accounts quite ethically. One would expect the presenters to have done a decent iob, for the entries rose dose to a hundred in number. It would toke more than iust a thousand bucks from our pockets to keep us rooted to those chairs. But thanks to the cosy inclining choirs of the PAH, the workshop catered to a few tired bodies. Preksha, one of the many hocking enthusiasts, after the very informative 8 and a half hour lecture was short of words(we wonder why) and could only say" Awwe-huh- some". What comes of the second installment, we sho ll see ... .
AXI S Adda Paparazzi of VNIT :P • Bags, covers, cortons and a ccents?? You just recognized our out-station participants, they hod to corry everything with them because of the lock of accommodation. Inconve nience caused is deep ly regretted.
• The bon on Iripsy doesn 't seem to apply 10 the core committee who were seen creaking around on assorted scaoties.
• Chinki was recovering from his wild birthday party, which involved working for Mofun and constituted of repeated expletives and phrases like, 'Abe sound nahin ao
roha ..... phirse khelke dekh' followed by, ' Abbe graphics sohi nohin hOi. .... .. phirse
khelke dekh .' Sounds like fun, no? • Autographed Ishi rts were available ot the help desk signed and sold by Dheeroj Dekote
MoFun
FREAKOMATIX
On the first day, God (read core) said, ' let the boys have fun'. And it was done. Video gomes, co-operative play, center of attraction, elite opponents, 35,000 worth of prize money. It does not get any better than this . For this very reason, AXIS ' 09 brings to you, Central Indio's largest gaming platform, MOFUN. Counter strike, Need For Speed, FIFA, all these fused together with 8- 10 hours of non-stop, intense, hardcore gaming. Hots off to Chinki ! A plethara of things were welded together to make MOFUN a very big success . It seemed to be the best received competition and definitely got the most number of spectators. MOFUN was among the few competitions that had substantial amount of participation from outside, a special mention shauld now ga to th e local team, Protocol. They did very well in the eliminations, surprising even our very masterful clans, but in the end VNITians stood tall, as Protocol's tactics cooled. There were more than 80 entries in FIFA itself. MOFUN was just another example af on efficient mix of both imagination and arganization.AWESOME!
FREAKOMATIX, the moth event (wasn' t too difficult to guess, was it?) is a test of the special math skills that are prized above all in on engineering college (since many of the students aspire to bell the CAT) . There needs to be a special dedication to acquire these kinds of skills, and the partici pants had no clue thot there was even a prize involved, but thot is exactly the kind of attitude that was needed . Signs, symbols, numbers and formulae were thrown around with gay abandon . In the hollowed halls of M H-O- l , the porticipants were arranged in groups 01 3, but there were a few who decided to rise above the mediocrity and stood as a shining lone beacon for all aspiring mathematicians. Chaitanyo Udhare nearly wrenched his head off in fru stration and we did not want to get any closer, he seemed to be doing very strange things with his pen (freaked out). Hence we conclude, the event lived up 10 its nome .
· Treasurer of AXIS by the way .... • The Archi' s had what ane would call a 'PRODUK'tive day PRODUK was postponed( For those who missed the genius pun) • It wasn't until a plane crashed that we realized the planes were miniatures. • Vyshokh has now permanently become cross-eyed. Too much spent time looking through the camera. • The help desk needed more help. We might not have been sitting 'on' the help desk, but definitely knew more!
(D E-) Cypher (- ED)
• FreakOmatix freaked out one of our archi reporter covering the evenl. The symbols brought bock her horrific memories of history class. • For the freshers, AXIS was all about exploring new places . The Canteen and Nescafe were thorough ly violated. • Afnan looked like a first year . • Utsav brushed off an interview requested by the newsletter team, and happily cartwheeled off into the sunset (again!!).
On Spot Robotics This event is a roy of hope for the unlucky bots from Mechatron. About 25 teams reg istered for the event and are still in line to clear the elims as th ey continue tomorrow . A cleverly designed arena occupied the reading room lobby, attracting much attention as it kicked off on a dull friday afternoon. In contrast to Mechatron, where strict penalties mode the best bots lose, they found a reason to smile here . The hilarity continued when the event managers spoke amongst themselves in a tongue that w as completely alien which left most of the partic ipants scratching their heads more for the language translation than for the arena itself. Thaugh some bats landed up in the 'death hole' placed right in the middle of the arena including the event managers' bot ilself, the highest points secured was 40 and the plant turned out deeply rooted with the score going as low as minus 45 . Although on informal, this even! too saw its share of problems. It was only an hour befare the event managers finally saw their hard earned event bonner go up . Apparently they were busier with giving shape to the banner than the event itself.
Coldwar Owing to a 'cold' response from the participants, the day 's metallurgy even t started 4 hours late, the multitude of events taking place at the some time was stated as th e reason. The enthusiastic event coordinators spent most of the morning patiently waiting lor their participants and pa instakingly placing their bonner outside the deportment, to a point of annoying precision . Special mention goes to Shrovan Suresh and Aiyoo (Varun lyer) w hose presence was way more prevalent than those of the participants. Surprisingly, this was one of the fe w even ts that had teams from outside Nagpur . The team from NIT Raipur hod to face a tad bit problem wi th their contraption being left behind at o station, which depreSSingly didn ' t reach its destination. Eventually it did, leaving the organizers wishing they hadn 't put in the effort of trying to get it here . The event required the (awaited) teams to cool the water prOVided to them in 5 minutes by whatever method they wished to adopt. All of the models were definitely interesting in appearance even if not in function. One of the rather simple but effective method was adopted by Swopnil and his group, which drew a lot of appreciation. Interestingly enough, their entire plan included only pipes and a bucket. The team "Col d Warriors" seemed like the fa vorites, with having made their model in a span of 1 and 1/2 hour flal. Hoving decided to toke port in it only in the morning, they used an ammonia reaction for the cooling process. All in all, even though the event took its time to 'worm up' ... it ended quite well in the eyes of the orga nizers .
cronicsForYou
I 'l'P{uJ
The hig hlight of the Camp-Sci Dept, "Cypher" was the IBM event, that kick-slorted on the 2 1st, with 260 plus participants being quizzed on Web 2.0. 50 participants were selected for the second round, due on Sunday. The chosen 50 are sure to smile, for they ore 011 ossured of some quality t-shirts. RevEngg is on event ded icated to reverse engineering . It had two onli ne eli minations and on On The Spot round witnessing 15 entries in each . Insomnia , the online coding event, had three very in teresting coding rounds. The problem statement was prOVided, expecting 0 precise and efficient code. The event was a huge success having international partici pation from the US (may be one of those laid off software engineers) and Chino(not so sure about the quolity here). Crypto·cru x was by-for the most interesting of these events. It had two online el iminations and one On The Spot round, hosting more than 50 participants . An interesting point to note was that this time, the computer geeks got to know their bugs (or the lock of them in windows 7) .
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