Students take part in various events at the techno-management fest, Alfresco. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, March 7: The techno-management festival of Gandhi Engineering College (GEC) — Alfresco — started today on the college campus in the outskirts of the city.

Apart from 700 odd students of the institute, more than 300 students from several colleges across the state are participating in the fest. Even those from far off districts such as, Rourkela, Rayagada, Berhampur, Paralakhemundi and Gunupur, registered for the event on the first day.

Alfresco, which takes its name from the first alphabet of various events — Ateliar, Logiks, Frolics, Rumination, Encipher, Satire, Coronus Arvamus and Onerus — would be held over three days.

After the opening ceremony, a series of mind-boggling technical and management programmes got under way. In Ateliar, robotics events called ‘Curvy Cues’ and ‘Tera Bot’ were held while ‘Gilder Designing’ tested the participants in aero-modelling skills by crafting gliders.

‘Logiks’ consisted of a mathematics Olympiad and algorithm design contest. ‘Encipher’ saw the participants dabbling in computer-related activities such as C-coding and Debugging, Java Wise and Web Designing. In these events majority of participants belonged to computer science and IT department.

With a host of quizzes in business, technology and general knowledge, ‘Rumination’ brought together the brainy participants on a common platform. While not many turned up for the paper presentation (Coronus Arvamus), which was held earlier in the day, there was a large crowd at ‘Satire’ where the contestants revealed their witty side by putting forth their ideas on abstract topics during the group debate and extempore.

‘Onerous’, picked from the French word ‘onereus’ meaning oppressive and troublesome, comprised popular computer games such as ‘Counter Strike’ and ‘Need for Speed’.

Amid these technically challenging and tough management dos, ‘Frolics’ saw a talent hunt competition — GEC’s Got Talent, face painting and a photography contest titled ‘Click’. This was not all, bonus events such as ‘product marketing’ and ‘crazy creatives’ were also organised to encourage young managers and entrepreneurs. The participants had to come up with advertising and marketing strategies for out-of-the-world products such as X-ray goggles, flying shoes and so on.