Where are we with ATMOS- An interview with the Technical Secretary

An interview with Ansh Kanotra, the Technical Secretary of BPHC, ahead of our techfest ATMOS this November.

1. What are your ambitions and what can we expect from ATMOS this year?

Ans.- When I got elected for the post of Technical Secretary, my only motive was to work for the betterment of technical culture in the campus. Whatever I saw in my first and second year, I sensed a lack of exposure among the GB and felt that the exposure was not sufficient. IT and Finance are the main fields where people get exposure over time, therefore, if you see the number of workshops in ATMOS, the number of workshops in the domain of IT are lesser than those in other fields. This is the main focus point, where I have tried to incorporate the workshops from all the domains. So there is a workshop in civil, mechanical and many others. I have tried to give exposure to each one of the BITSians, irrespective of the batch, if the person wants to explore a particular field, and the field lacks majority, then also he gets exposure in that field.This is something very different from Orbe Novo and ATMOS ‘22. So the workshops would be very diverse during ATMOS and even during the tenure as well.

2. Workshops may sometimes be too theoretical, and not having hands-on experience can prove boring. How do you plan to tackle this problem?

Ans.- Last ATMOS, the clubs had a time crunch to prepare and the budget was passed very late, like 15 days before the fest and the senate was not prepared. This time, the preparations for the fest began as soon as I got elected. Right after my comprehensive examinations, I asked the senate to provide me the workshops which they want to conduct and I took regular updates for the same. The Technical Secretary screens the workshops and ensures that workshops are up to the mark since we are representing the technical culture of BITS. So last time there was a time constraint, but this time I have ensured that the workshops won’t be boring, we all will have a great time during ATMOS.

3. What are some of the biggest challenges faced by you in the preparation leading to the techfest?

Ans.- As of now, I really haven’t faced any significant challenges, since my senate has been very supportive in this regard, that even when I told them four months earlier to give the details of workshops, they considered the idea and did the same. That is something, which I am very proud of and I feel so glad to say that I did not feel any challenges during the planning of events or budget rectifications. Yes, the problem that I only faced was that I had to cut down the workshops of a few clubs because they were pretty much similar to each other, so had to cut them down. But since each and every club had worked so hard for events and each of the events was so good but for this reason, had to cut down a few and thus this was the biggest challenge that I faced.

4. What are some of the problems that you faced last year with the events and workshops and how do you plan to work over them this time?

Ans.- The difficulty we faced last year was the publicity of fest because of the time constraint and this time I can say that if you check out ATMOS insta page right now, you will find the publicity started 4 months ago and therefore we had ample of time to publicise the fest this time. So the quality of the fest and publicity were the fields where we lacked but we have ensured to excel in them as well this time.

5. Considering this to be a technical-fest, we aim to show the best of our tech culture. But at the same time, we notice long queues in front of coupon stalls. So have you worked out a system for online/e-coupons this time?

Ans.- The issue with the online coupon system is something different. For this, we have been in talks with SWD and CRC. The problem is not the interface, it is ready. The issue is that the coupons which are left. Let’s say if you buy a coupon of 1000, 50 is left but you bought and now it is with you. Now when you buy a coupon of 1000 online, what needs to be done with the remaining 50 is something which we need to think of. And these things need to be discussed with the administration to take the decision. There is a chain of command,which involves SWD, the Dean and other administrative bodies, that has to be followed there. But yes the interface is ready. However, we should not expect e-coupons at least this ATMOS, though we are trying hard. Also to reduce the queues, we will be setting up more counters to sell the coupons, which would ensure that the problem of queues is solved.

6. What are some of the workshops that make ATMOS ‘23 unique?

Ans.- Being an electronic core student, I like Robonex bootcamp. In this workshop, we are making a self-balancing bot, whereas last time, it was a line follower. This time we have upgraded the kit and it has an entire self-balancing bot. Other than that, there is a Revit workshop by CEA, so Revit is something which is utilised much in the civil industry. There are many other workshops and the number of workshops have been increased and I have faith in all of them.

7. Could you compare the number of workshops (Pre-atmos and Atmos) for the last year and this year?

Ans.- Last year, there weren’t many pre-atmos workshops. There was an issue which was addressed in the ATMOS review meet. There was an issue, where no one knew who would be handling the logistics for the pre-atmos workshops. But this time, currently we have 21 workshops and I have tried to keep them all during ATMOS, but only 2 of them are happening pre-atmos.

8. Considering the talks, pro-shows and this big number of workshops, we have only three days, so how do you ensure that they do not clash, and the fest does not suffer a time crunch?

Ans.- The schedule will be released to the GB soon, and I have tried that the workshops with same domain do not clash. Like let’s say one is phoenix enthusiast, so the workshops related to phoenix won’t clash. At one time, we have scheduled workshops from different domains, so the workshops with the same domain do not clash. This resolves the issue of clashing. Also, the pro-shows won’t go until 1 or 2 at night, and the workshops will be starting from 10 in the morning, so I guess that resolves this issue too.

9.  How one differentiates between the role of TeAM and SUMT in ATMOS?

Ans.- TeAM and SUMT are complementary to each other. SUMT deals with the SU and TeAM deals with the Technical Secretary and the senate. So basically, SUMT will handle the department side of the fest, whereas TeAM will handle the technical senate things. So, each technical club is provided with one TeAM member to address the issues. 

Why TeAM? Because a single person doesn’t have a bandwidth during the fest or a few days before the fest. This happens with me, that I am in class and I get DMs to address the issue, so the whole point of TeAM, is to handle the problem which is in their capability but if it is out of their box, they can directly reach out to me. This is the whole point of TeAM. So if a club has a problem, the first poc is the TeAM member, and if the TeAM member is unable to solve that, it comes directly to me.

10. Considering the number of workshops, how do you plan the publicity of the same inside the campus, other than the traditional ways of publicity? How do you work for more participation?

Ans.- This time, we are trying to give the small snippets of what will be held in the workshops. Like for RC planes, I can tell you that there will be an event coming up, where RC planes would be flying before the workshops, which would work as the publicity for the workshops. The ML workshop, we have kept a deep learning workshop before the main ML workshop, so people can get a brief introduction of the main workshop. This is something which I am trying to do for each and every workshop. This time I want people to be genuinely interested in the workshop they participate in.

11.  Considering the number of the workshops, how do you ensure the quality at the same time? 

Ans.- As I said, there is a screening which always takes place, and this time I have ensured that workshops don’t turn out like it was last year. For the specific example, last year we did not see any flying quadcopter before the workshop, but this time one week before the fest, we will show you the RC plane flying, so people can make an informed decision.

12. What is the current domain on which you are working for the fest and when would the preparations wrap up, in a way in which we can say that the Technical Secretary is now free and the fest is good to go ?

Ans.- The current domain on which I am working is the publicity of the fest and other than that, almost everything from senate side is completed and we are working on providing the advances to the clubs, so they can get their kits ready. Talking about good to go for fest, we are good to go right now, the publicity is dynamic so it will continue till the fest. And if you want me to be free, honestly it would be better if I am not free before the fest and will keep working to bring the best fest and make ATMOS a big hit!!

13. What would be your message for the GB regarding ATMOS’23?

Ans.- My message to GB is that, the way I have planned ATMOS this time ensures that they could get a taste of the technical culture of each and every domain. What I have seen here is that the people run blindly towards the Finance and the IT sector, but being a core enthusiast, it pains me to see that. So the 2023 batch and 2022 batch who are yet to decide, about which domain to pursue, I want you all to get the real taste of what the technology actually feels like in your hand, so you can make better decisions in the future. Also, my suggestion for the GB is to try attending as many workshops as humanly possible. My experience says that people gravitate towards the proshows more than what the actual essence of the fest is. Essence of a tech-fest is its technical events. This time, we have worked very hard for the workshops. So my expectation is that the GB participate in these workshops and not only participate but try to win them too.