MIND matters: Enthusiastic participants at the Infocom quiz

India’s largest conference and exhibition on information and communication technology, Infocom, was held at Salt Lake Stadium, from February 21 to 24, 2008. It was not restricted to grave discussions by business tycoons. Instead it offered youngsters a podium to display their scientific skills. There was a pool of events to take part in and students from all over the country participated.

There was an exhibition-cum- competition for engineering students in which students from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal took part enthusiastically. Projects like the electronic wheel chair, line follower, anti-theft security device, rice-ash-husk-brick, collision avoidance sensors and remote switching were some of the projects in the competition that were much appreciated and admired. The winner was the electronic wheel chair, designed and built by a team from Kerala.

The Telegraph-Careergraph IT Edufair, a part of Infocom, was also a big success. Many institutes joined the fair to spread awareness among prospective students about all the courses they offer. Students as well as parents were happy to be able to check out a whole gamut of career opportunities under the same roof.

JobsMart, a large-scale walk-in interview, had thousands of CVs flying in. Several IT companies were looking for people and students were happy to get direct access to companies like Capgemini and FutureSoft.

Infocom wrapped up with Quizzit and a whole lot of people turned up to take part in a little quizzing.

Kshama Agarwal,
MCKVIE, Liluah, Howrah

CALCUTTA
Quiz time

Ballygunge Siksha Sadan’s girls were the winners of the 10th junior inter-school quiz contest organised by Birla High School (Girls) in which students of classes III to V of 10 leading educational institutions took part. The students of Calcutta Boys School kept their cool and defeated the Birla High School (Boys) by a narrow margin in a nail-biting tie-breaker.

The other schools that took part were Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School, St James, La Martiniere for Girls, La Martiniere for Boys, Delhi Public School and the hosts, Birla High School (Girls). Noshir Wadia was the quizmaster, keeping the crowd at the Vidya Mandir auditorium entertained with his quick wit and of course, questions directed at the audience. The audience’s favourite seemed to be the audio round, with the entire auditorium singing along with the popular Hindi and English songs being played. Participants had to come up with the name of the film the song was from or the singer.

Two new rounds were introduced this year, one where all the answers began with the word 10 and the live demonstration round, in which students of Birla High School (Girls) dressed up as famous personalities and participants had to guess who they were. For example, there was a question on hockey and the girls dressed up as the Chak De India girls. Another girl performed a Bharatnatyam mudra and students had to identify the dance form. “Unmasking the celebrity” was another popular round. The students also had to identify celebrities from only a part of their photographs. It was fun to hear gasps all around as each one was revealed little by little. Finally, the rapid fire round wrapped it up with one member from each team sitting on the “hot seat” and trying to answer 10 questions in no more than 40 seconds!

Sharmila Bose, principal of Birla High School (Girls) sees the quiz as something that takes pressure off the kids. “These kinds of activities allow students to increase their general knowledge and awareness. And what better way than to start at a young age, so that they are geared up for the future in all aspects of life?”

Mudita Agarwal, Class VI,
Birla High School (Girls)

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