Students participate in Chakravyuh, the annual tech fest of ITER, in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 3: After the inauguration of Chakravyuh, the three-day annual tech fest organised by students of Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) last night, a series of events kick started on the campus today.

Often dubbed as one of the biggest technological extravaganzas of the state, the fest aims to provide a platform to students to showcase their expertise in various fields through an array of technically challenging activities. Besides tricky and tough activities such as Robowars, Death Race, C-coding, Java debugging and Electrical Circuit design, several fun and creative activities such as Junkyard Wars, Face-off, Born Leader, quizzing, poster design, marble in the spoon, blind dating and speed dating have also found a place.

More than 2,000 students from all branches of the college are participating in some event or the other. “The concept of speed dating has been introduced this time. Two boys among the spectators are called at random. They have to propose to a girl. Whoever goes the extra mile to impress the girl gets to take her out on a date,” said student Priyambada Priyadarshini.

“Born Leader and Face-off are HR games. While the former is an individual game, Face-off is a group game in which each participant, through a volley of arguments, has to convince the judges that ‘he is right’. On the other, another event such as Kaleidoscope, which is an amalgamation of technical and management skills, also draws a huge crowd,” said volunteer Ankit Bansal.

However, the star attraction of the day were the robotics events – Robo Race, Robo Chore, Robo Wars (all remote-controlled games) and Labyrinth Unraveller, which is an automated game. More than 300 teams, including students from other engineering colleges, also participated in this event.

“Robotics has always been our strength and the maximum prize money is won in it. Teams from our institute have won several inter-college robotics competitions even at the national level,” said Ghanshyam, another volunteer.

Several innovative stalls such as Jaago (in which students will teach poor children), Gen X e-Vision (a science competition in which over 30 colleges across the state are participating), Vidyut (an electrical exhibition and aero-modelling event) and Shristi (the art and craft exhibition) attracted a lot of students.

The final rounds of the events are slated to take place tomorrow. “There will be a performance by a music band at the end of the fest, but we are not revealing their name now. It started amid much pomp and fanfare and will also end on a similar note,” Bansal said.