ATMOS Through The Ages

BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus, one of the most prestigious colleges in India, keeps proving its distinction from time to time. While getting better academically, soaring to greater heights of success each year, it also brings out its most through its fests – Pearl and ATMOS.

ATMOS – The Assimilation of Technically Motivated Souls – has been a display of the college’s thriving technical culture since its inauguration in 2012.

The very first ATMOS in 2012 was indeed a massive crowd-puller. It spanned for three days and saw huge participation from all over the country. Remarkable events such as Robotics and Circuit Design competition were held and Headliner events included workshops from notable companies like Wikipedia and DreamWorks Animation. Ethical Hacking and Android app development workshops provided an insight into the modern technical trends.

The National General Quiz, Enigma 2013 was the highlight of ATMOS, 2013. The technical associations organised several competitions. Cannon Wars by the Association of Chemical Engineers, Open Outcry by the Economics Association, Junkyard Wars by the Mechanical Engineering Association garnered several enthusiastic participants. The Computer Science Association’s events like Algomaniac, Brainstorm and Codename were also very popular. There was a Raspberry Pi workshop for robotics enthusiasts and also a Windows 8 Appfest, a coding marathon/heaven for web developers.

The third edition of ATMOS in 2014 marked a slight deviation in its theme and organisation to accommodate more events on management and finance to completely justify its description as a techno-management festival. New events like Open Outcry, Managers Dilemma and Trading Brains were met with widespread approval. Usual technical events such as RoboWars, CircuitArt and Mini GP continued to engage participants and Enigma 2014 was again a huge success on a national scale with over 250 teams participating in the regionals. A footfall of 5000 was registered over the course of the three days of the fest.

2015 saw the most popular edition of ATMOS ever with a footfall of a whopping 8000 during the three days from 9-11th October. The inauguration was especially well regarded with mind-blowing performances by the Dance and the Dramatics Clubs. Sponsorship saw an all time high with official sponsors including Coca Cola, Red Bull, Uninor and the likes. Guests of honour who turned up for the fest included Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, technical advisor to the Defence Minister and Director of DRDO and Justice Markandey Katju, former Chief Justice of India and Chairman of the Press Council of India. Suit Up, an event organised by the CEL was one of the most popular events that year. Enigma 2015 finals saw renowned quizzer Vikram Joshi take up the role of quizmaster with the 8 winners of the regional rounds taking part. A grand total of 50k as prize money was up for grabs during Enigma.

The most recent ATMOS, 2016 had a rather interesting theme – Illusions, Paradoxes and Perspectives. Much like the fascinating theme, the inaugural performances by the Music, the Dance, Shades and the Dramatics Clubs were stupefying! DJ Paroma enlivened and brewed up the whole campus with her indelible proShow. The BITSMUN 2016, which was conducted along with ATMOS proved to be a grand success as well. Some of the significant workshops included PyBITS, RC Aircraft, Aerial Photography, IoT and Fastrack Automobile. PyBITS being one of the highlighted events aimed at promoting the usage of Python among the attendees, and at introducing them to new ideas as to the applicability of Python in various programming domains. In addition to already popular headliner events, the major competitive events encompassed Code Jam, Reverse Coding and Algomaniac. Sponsors like Cyient, Prodigy, SBI, Heico and KTM funded the fest making it a grand success. A noteworthy guest oration was delivered by Dr. Devi Shetty, cardiosurgeon, chairman and founder of Narayana Health, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri laurel.