What: Srijan 2013, the techno-management fest organised by Jadavpur University’s FETSU, in association with t2.

When: February 22 to 24.

Where: At the University’s Salt Lake campus.

Day One

After Souvik Bhattacharyya, the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University, inaugurated the fest, there was a scramble to register for events lined up for the next three days. One of the most attended events on the first day was the preliminary round of a robotics showdown from which 25 teams were sent to the next round. The highlight of the day, however, turned out to be Street Dance, a scintillating performance by Calcutta-based group Masters of Puppets who break-danced to popular Bollywood numbers like Saaiyaan.

Day two

The second day was a huge success with over 300 participants registering for Paint Ball, which, despite being an unofficial event, attracted the maximum number of students. “People usually have to pay a huge sum of money to play this game elsewhere, but here one can play it cheap,” said Tathagata Maitra, one of the organisers of the fest. Other events included Robo Wars in which robots made by students had to fight against one another and Robo Street Soccer where the robots had to prove their mettle in a game of football. Those with a taste for something more cerebral attended competitions like Mathemagician and Coding-X Bug. The FIFA gaming contest also attracted several young football enthusiasts.

The day ended with a guest performance by Uttam Das, a football juggler, who left the audience awestruck as he entered carrying two balls on his shoulders and one on his head. This was a welcome respite from a day of number crunching.

Day three

The final day was mostly reserved for the finals of various events. Some of the events, like Junkyard Wars, were quirky and interesting. Participants were given junk material and a stipulated amount of time to create boats out of junk and make them sail. Autonomous, an event similar to Junkyard Wars, required students to build cars and then make them zip and zoom.

In the evening, participants gathered around to watch sand animation by Kaushik Basu. He explored various ideas about science and humanity (and the JU logo!) “using” sand, light and his fingertips.

And who took home the prizes? Teams from JU.

“The events were fascinating. It is amazing just how many things a robot can do! It was all organised very well,” said Mayank Singhal, student of JU and second runner-up in the Biz Quiz.