Cognition '13

Jagruti Shenoy & Indu Venkatakrishnan | Scintilla Weekly

Navi Mumbai: Wonders will never cease to exist! And nor will Cognition, the intra-collegiate technical festival of SIES Graduate School of Technology.

Photo Courtesy: Keval Karani

Like every year, Cognition was conducted with great vigor and vitality over a span of two days, 20^th and 21^st September 2013. Posters of all major sponsors could be seen adorning the GST building, while not one notice board was left unutilized for displaying information leaflets of events scheduled on the two days.

Photo Courtesy: Keval Karani

The inauguration ceremony marked the beginning of the festival, giving a glimpse of the events which were to follow in the next two days. The dignitaries on the dais were Principal Dr. Alka Mahajan, Guest of Honor Mr. Parag Palsapure (associated with Qualcomm and IIT-B and presently Vice President of Reliance Global Communication), Dean (Academics) Mr.Ashok Tagalpallewar, Student Council Incharge Mrs. Sumitra Padmanabhan, Student Council President Abhishek Labhe, and Technical Secretary Ameya Joshi.

Photo Courtesy: Keval Karani

A ceremonial lamp was lit by the Principal Dr. Alka Mahajan with the students of the music club chanting the Shanti mantra in the background to invoke the blessings of the Almighty. As is the tradition at GST, the Principal then welcomed the Chief Guest with a sapling. Ameya Joshi threw light on all the events that were scheduled for the two days. Abhishek Labhe enlightened the audience about the various events that were conducted during the course of the semester. Mr. Parag proved to be a great source of inspiration to all engineers present when he spoke about his experiences in the telecom industry and the current trends therein. The college’s first newsletter ‘The GST Gazette’ was unveiled by the Guest of Honor. The best exhibits of the Engineer’s day exhibition were shown to the dignitaries outside the auditorium.

Photo Courtesy: Keval Karani

The 3^rd edition of Matrix, an inter-collegiate Science Olympiad conducted exclusively for the first year students to help them set their foot in engineering, seemed to have grown exponentially this time as compared to the previous versions. Students from various engineering colleges across Mumbai appeared in huge numbers to be a part of this fun-filled event. Their knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics was evaluated over five interesting rounds. What is even more amazing is, a team from SIESGST bagged the title of winners of Matrix 2013!

The sports events during Cognition included arm wrestling, Tug of War, Chess, Carrom and Table Tennis. The atmosphere of the campus was highly vociferous as the students cheered for their favourite tug of war teams. TE-EXTC team emerged victorious in the tug of war for girls whereas the SE-IT boys stole the limelight in the men’s category. For the first time, the arm wrestling event was open to girls. The chess and carrom matches were conducted over a period of two days.

'The Lost Symbol'- The new and improved version of the Tech Race- saw 80-odd teams running around the campus with clues and maps in hands.

This year’s Technical Paper Presentation ‘Quid Pro Quo’ witnessed amazing and thought-provoking papers based on fiction.

Robotics events included the Robo-maze, Robo-soccer, Robo-duel, etc. Aquabot and gesture-controlled drag race were introduced for the first time.

Crime Scene Investigation consisted of mind-boggling rounds like solving brain-teasers and ‘serial killing’ to name a few.

The LAN gaming event was attended by gaming-enthusiasts in huge numbers. It included games like FIFA 13, Defense of the Ancients (DotA), Counter-Strike and Need For Speed-Most Wanted.

Photo Courtesy: Keval Karani

Events like Dream Job, Socio-Tech and I Crysis were amongst the newbies in Cognition. People flocked at Dream Job to test their professional skills, while Socio-Tech emphasized on the need of protecting the environment by doing little things that could bring huge changes.

The participants of Product Advertisement had to popularize a product that was offered with the help of television commercials. This event saw many a talented lot putting their acting skills to use to bag the prize.

Business Plan helped the participants to polish their entrepreneurship skills and learn new ways of business and marketing.

Tech Quiz, Truss-it-up, Logonix, Playstation 2, Google Whacking and Pack un Crack were other popular events in this year’s Cognition.