(with inputs from Anoosh - my friend and co-coord for Shaastra 2009)It has been a really long break from blogging, largely due to lack of time, and perhaps, lack of an interesting subject to write about. The 7th sem has begun and is more-than-half over. Acads are going on nicely, Shaastra is just over and I finally have the time and an interesting topic to write on!
It all starts with an idea, they say. This did start with an idea. An idea to prove that academics (read: electrical engineering) can be fun when seen from the right perspective. An idea to start a unique genre of events in Shaastra - tech-unwind, one that has less of tech and more of fun! An idea that later came to be known as Short Circuit!
It all starts with an idea, they say. This did start with an idea. An idea to prove that academics (read: electrical engineering) can be fun when seen from the right perspective. An idea to start a unique genre of events in Shaastra - tech-unwind, one that has less of tech and more of fun! An idea that later came to be known as Short Circuit!
The motivation
An analysis of the participants' statistics of Shaastra 2008 revealed that out of the 20000-odd students who registered on the Shaastra website, more than 4000 belonged to Electrical engineering and related branches (ECE, EEE, E&I etc.). And how many competitive events did Shaastra 2008 had to offer to them? Just ONE! Something that made us (me and Anoosh) ponder for a few days.
An analysis of the participants' statistics of Shaastra 2008 revealed that out of the 20000-odd students who registered on the Shaastra website, more than 4000 belonged to Electrical engineering and related branches (ECE, EEE, E&I etc.). And how many competitive events did Shaastra 2008 had to offer to them? Just ONE! Something that made us (me and Anoosh) ponder for a few days.
The conception and planning
We wanted to conceive of an event that would entertain the large number of Elec masses who throng Shaastra, an event that would be a crowd-puller! After a lot of discussions and deliberations, during a casual stroll around the Cubbon Park (Bangalore) on one fine summer evening, the idea of Short Circuit struck us.
The plan was concretized. Have an open-to-all prelims with questions that evoke a "Yes, yes! I can crack it" kind of feeling upon first reading and which involve application of nothing more than common sense and basic electrical engineering fundaes. Select eight teams from the prelims, and pit them one-on-one against each other in short, crisp and exciting matches spanning 4 quarters, 2 semis and 1 grand finale!
"Elec can be fun too, mind it", we proclaimed!
The publicity
The Official Short Circuit Teaser Video became an instant hit, recording more than 200 views on Youtube in less than 3 hours of getting uploaded. The Official Short Circuit Mascot, a plug-and-socket combination representing a short circuit, became a cult figure straightaway and won several admirers, including certain profs whose interests in Shaastra 2009 till then were limited only to the laser/fireworks show and the grub stalls.
We brought out a couple of teaser questions just before Shaastra to get insti junta excited about Short Circuit. The response was amazing. The lucky winners of these teaser questions, on the day of the grand finale, walked away with assorted gift-hampers consisting of Shaastra T-shirts, Shaastra key-chains, Open Solaris CDs, NetBeans IDE CDs and copies of Electronics For You, all neatly packaged in bio-degradable paper bags brought from Gurunath.
We were overwhelmed when a lot of our insti friends accepted our request to put flyers on Short Circuit on their GTalk status messages. Our sincere thanks to all of them!
[Click on the pic to enlarge and appreciate!]
[Click on the pic to enlarge and appreciate!]The event
The prelims, held in CRC on October 3 (Saturday), saw more than 150 teams (~450 students) turning up, including ~60 teams from outside IITM. The question-paper, prepared after 4 straight night-outs of research, became quite popular among the participants, with many of them coming to us later to convey their kudos. The feedback from the participants was amazing; none of the ratings in any of the feedback forms were below 4/5 (5 = Best).The post-prelims, conducted on the next day in ICSR Hall 3, witnessed an all-insti clash. A fourth-year undergrad team comprising of Chinmoy, Harish and Kishore breezed through the quarters and semis before surviving a scare from an MS team (Timir, Ankesh, Kunal) in the finale to eventually emerge champions!
The post-prelims rounds would be more fondly remembered by the audience for the unique Elec-dumb-charades that had the entire hall in splits. Raghunandan, trying to enact 'convolution', rotated himself, spun an electron and went to the extent of revolving the planets and the universe, but the convolution never happened. Sathish's love for Theoretical Physics was clearly evident as he resorted to Planck's constant and photons to enact a term as simple as 'frequency'.
The post-prelims rounds would be more fondly remembered by the audience for the unique Elec-dumb-charades that had the entire hall in splits. Raghunandan, trying to enact 'convolution', rotated himself, spun an electron and went to the extent of revolving the planets and the universe, but the convolution never happened. Sathish's love for Theoretical Physics was clearly evident as he resorted to Planck's constant and photons to enact a term as simple as 'frequency'.
The circuit-makers
We would like to thank a few people - Faheem (for making the awesome Teaser Video), Arvind (for designing the immortal mascot), Pavan (for handling all our production requirements), Sagar (our QMS coord), Vignesh-SK-Akhil (the Events Cores, for providing all possible support to our idea of Short Circuit), Gainda-Subbu (the Finance Cores, for being kind to provide T-Shirts and keychains as audience prizes), Raghav (the Spons Core, for arranging copies of EFY as audience prize), Tarun-Vamsi-Kishor-Sunaina-Nitish (our vols, for their amazing enthusiasm towards organizing and conducting the event), Manekha (a photography vol, who captured the dumb-charades moments) and everyone else who helped us conduct the event successfully!
A multitude of plans to take Short Circuit forward is in the pipeline - to organize it on a much grander scale next year, to continue it as part of E2A this year, to organize an all-profs' Short Circuit during the upcoming Elec Nite.
We would like to thank a few people - Faheem (for making the awesome Teaser Video), Arvind (for designing the immortal mascot), Pavan (for handling all our production requirements), Sagar (our QMS coord), Vignesh-SK-Akhil (the Events Cores, for providing all possible support to our idea of Short Circuit), Gainda-Subbu (the Finance Cores, for being kind to provide T-Shirts and keychains as audience prizes), Raghav (the Spons Core, for arranging copies of EFY as audience prize), Tarun-Vamsi-Kishor-Sunaina-Nitish (our vols, for their amazing enthusiasm towards organizing and conducting the event), Manekha (a photography vol, who captured the dumb-charades moments) and everyone else who helped us conduct the event successfully!
A multitude of plans to take Short Circuit forward is in the pipeline - to organize it on a much grander scale next year, to continue it as part of E2A this year, to organize an all-profs' Short Circuit during the upcoming Elec Nite.As we take a break and look back, we feel proud of initiating this unique event; it was a start really well made!
55 comments:
nice narration.........interesting blog.... :) enjoy your sanyas from shaastra now....
The all prof SC seems to be a bit sarcastic....
GODs in elec fiddling over some basic stuff...
feels amazing...
put SC in elec n8 for sure...
I am sure it will rock there....
it kishor not Ksihor....
Nice concept and wonderful implementation
@ Shankar: Sanyaas wali baat agley article mein, abhi ssshh... :)
@ Kishor (not Ksihor): We'll have the all-profs Short Circuit and prove to them that answering questions is not always easy, even if they are on simple stuff!
@ Theertha: Thanks! :)
Seemed like fun..unfortunately missed it..will participate next year though :)
Cubbon Park? Really...:)
I really regret not being able to be around for the event. Sounds like everyone had a real good time.
Btw, I would suggest something like dumb charades for profs, rather than something serious and tantamount to a competition of (serious) elec fundaes.
@ Adhiraj: All the best for next year. Do have fun! :)
@ Vignesh: Yes, Cubbon Park....on one Saturday evening during interns!
We have to come up with a concrete plan about what exactly to do with Profs and Short Circuit during Elec Nite that will keep the audience entertained! Dumb-charades is one option; have to think of more.
As I thought it would turn out to be, a very well planned and executed event. Congrats to all your team members and to you specially for showcasing such high enthu levels. I might have got pained with you but I admired you all the time for your passion; Go Mishre.. you set standards :)
nice narration, interesting blog man . i know u always want do something different that u did . u put 4 straight night out during this work. u did very well and very hard work.
put it in elec night also........
........great job rakesh misraji
All that starts well, ends well i guess. Finally i have seen a person who thinks about fun in elec :D
@ J Square: I'm flattered! :)
Btw, I and Anoosh must thank you and your Publicity team for your exceptional work that got us unprecedented number of entries in our other event, Shaastra Circuit Design Challenge (SCDC). You helped us set standards! :)
@ Batti: Thanks yaar! Elec Nite ke liye planning chal rahi hai, dekhte hain kitne achhe ideas milte hain.
@ The1: Before Short Circuit, we said, "Elec can be fun too, mind it!". After Short Circuit, a couple of participants came to us and said, "Elec is fun, mind it!". :)
Great job guys... Make sure a lot of juniors read this and get ideas for new events and making them a success :)
Enjoy the sanyas :)
The idea and effort you put in is commendable! Would have loved to attend this event if I weren't already busy with SimC :-/
great work guys !!!
sc for the profs should be pretty intresting and yes the prelims paper was a testimony to "Elec can be fun too, mind it ! "
It makes me happier everytime I get to know about Elec getting famous and successful. :)
You guys have done a wonderful job by introducing this event. If I had to give "Elec Distinguished Students Award" this year too, I would have surely given it to you guys. Truly deserving.
Like Hula pointed out, make sure you convey the complete process of taking an initiative to your juniors so that they can come up with improved versions of existing events or such new initiatives. :)
Best wishes,
Amar 'Galib' Jawa
@ Anuj: Sure, we're trying to get a few juniors interested about this so that Short Circuit is carried forward with greater success in the coming years!
@ Advait: You still have another Shaastra to enjoy!
@ Komail: Thanks! Nice to hear that the prelims paper was fun!
@ Galib: It makes us happy as well, to popularize Elec.
Thanks for the award, we're overwhelmed! :)
As I mentioned, we're seeing if we can continue Short Circuit as part of E2A activities during the year. We're looking for juniors who can help us take the event forward.
Btw, thanks for your exhaustive comments! :)
I think being a QMS coord of the event, The event was well planned in advance, and Rakesh and anoosh really put a lot of fight to gt it thru, So i wud like 2 congratulate them first of all!!,you really deserve it.
The event was a gr8 success as we had predicted it to be,especially the teasers which made the event even more popular.
This event has marked a milestone for us, we ought to do better than this next year(which will be really difficult).
I was thinking that how about having an Elec fest this year in which we can put in events like short ckt and make it rocking!!
IT WAS REALLY FUN!!!!
abhutapurba prabandha te....bharatara agami pidhiku nischita bhabare marga darshana deba..prabandha ru lekhaka re pragnya bisayare jana pade..
@ Sagar: Thanks! The teasers really helped us generate interest about the event.
As the Shaastra Newsletter once said, "Other departments have their department fests...but Elec has Shaastra!" So, a separate Elec Fest can be put on hold at the moment. :)
And yes, it was really fun! Elec is so much fun, afterall!
@ Sonali: Agami pidhhi margadarshana prapta karantu ki nahin, bartaman pidhhi ta nischita ehi ghatana dwara utsahita eban utfullita achhi! :)
A well planned and meticulously executed event !!! Didn't know that his meetings in Cubbon park were all targeted towards this event
had to be an amazing event this. With more than 450 people participating for an event that has been conducted for the first time is a feat in itself kudos to rakesh and team.. as he would often say "I am the guy who gives inspiration in a team da" :) he really does... Am sure his contribution was far more that that..
I remember him putting fight for the contest along with anoosh and freshies in the IE lab. we both were the last one to get out (@5 a.m) ,of course i had come there to work on an assignment with him, and was inspired by the guy's fight putting abilities..
and the way he publicized it was awesome, with the teasers and all that and not to mention the "Gtalk status msg" parade.. :P
am unfortunate to have missed it. hope to catch it next year.. 3 cheers to rakesh.
elec made fun......
The difference between prof's perspective and student's perspective about elec can be infinity...... :)
keep this moment alive in the coming years too so that elec junta don't hate elec anymore :)
@ Rahul: Now, you must be feeling happy not to have accompanied me to Cubbon Park during those weekend evenings! :)
@ Mukunda: Mugging till 5 am in IE lab; you too are no less a fight-putter da! :)
And ya, the GTalk status message parade was awesome! Cheers to all the people who agreed to be a part of it!
(Btw, did you click on that GTalk pic and see it enlarged?)
@ Uttam: Elec junta these days are saying, "Elec! Umm...I'm lovin it!" :)
Short Circuit proved that elec can be fun too, didn't it? :)
@ KJ: It was 2 rooms full of junta, not 3!
And match-fixing with me and Anoosh at the helm of affairs? You must be joking, Mr. KJ! :)
Easily one of the most fun events this Shaastra. The quality of questions were also quite good. The DC round was unexpected and refreshing! Look forward to SC @ elec night!
One more interesting article to Misre... It was an amazing event though. I dare say, the coords would have a tough time if the event draws more interest. Kudos.
Great unwind event and nice questions. Had a lot of fun at the finals. Looking forward to the prof SC (Now that will be something to light up the elec nite :)
@ Harish: Nice to hear from you that the quality of questions was good!
@ Avinash: No coord would mind seeing infinte crowd at his/her event. :)
@ Sathish: Prof SC is just a plan in the pipeline; let's see if it works out.
Feels really nice to know that people had fun at Short Circuit; the purpose of the event has been achieved!
Great work guys. Again, sorry for not being around in the event, but I guess it was more or less cause we knew we had the best set of coords taking care of it. And like Vignesh told us once, we should have cloned you and Anoosh and run all of Shaastra with the clones. And kudos to your vols too, for I know they must have done a lot of work in the process. And , yes we do look forward to making both this and SCDC mainstays at Shaastra.
SK
the blog is really an interesting one...short circuit concept is worth praising...great work mr. concept....
@ SK: Thanks. Clones - nice idea! :)
@ Papu: Mr. Concept? ;)
For me, the event was an eye opener because I saw how much a person(read:Misre) could be dedicated to something. Misra's enthusiasm throughout the event took me by surprise. At one point, when he suggested the idea about the mascot, I asked him 'Where do you get these ideas from?' and his reply was - 'I dont know. They keep coming to me. I cant help it.'
Organizing this event sparked off many firsts for me. Apart from being my first(and last) coordship at Shaastra, it was also the primary cause behind my first night out.. Ever. Some memories which will remain with me for quite some time are the times we spent in the cool, quiet atmosphere of IE lab, working late into the night.
Before signing off, I would like to say that making elec seem like fun to others really does require a lot of effort :P .
The experience of SCDC and the entire coordship at Shaastra has really transformed Baba, as I found out later when he asked me whether he could apply for Spons at Saarang :)
Baba, you should have applied. It would have been your first and last coordship at Saarang too!
My whole experience with Short Circuit has been awesome as it has been the source of a free t shirt :) Bye Bye, Shaastra
@ Anoosh: I can proudly proclaim that I made you put your first night out ever (though you managed to squeeze in 3 hours of sleep)! :)
@ Amrit: I ask a question different from Baba's. Had I applied for Spons in Saarang, would you have selected me? :)
Btw, Baba already has a coordship in Saarang (Cluedo 2009).
You mentioned the T-Shirt, you forgot the EFY, NetBeans IDE, Open Solaris CD etc that you got alongwith it!
Bye bye, Amrit from Shaastra! :)
@Amrit : I think we already had a discussion regarding this and we agreed that it was your impression of me which transformed and it was not me who changed.
And regarding Spons for Saarang : I dont think the Spons team is going to suffer too much without me :P . Plus I can never imagine myself working for you. :P
@Rakesh : Unlike you I didnt get to sleep for a couple of hours in the evening. So 3 hours is acceptable. (Though you did put a night out on many other days.) :)
Nicely written blog, Awesome Event. After going thru the descriptions, I really regret missing it.
And cheers to the most enthu set of coords! (and their vols too!) Hope you enjoyed it.
And the mascot is truly awesome.
Very well written dude..A very detailed entry on what u guys went thru to put this event..
Obviously, my favourite part of the event was the dumb charades..and though i missed it, thanks for making Raghu act "convolution"..he made me act "crimes and misdemeaners" once..serves him rite..:)
Btw u dint put the part about listening to gospel songs while u guys put nite outs..
Need I say anything More :)
Totally agree with SK on the clone thing
Gr8 Job Guys !!
Go Mishraji :D
@ Akhil: Let me share a story about the mascot.
If you remember, initially, we were requesting for a slot on Friday afternoon (Day2, Gandhi Jayanti: a holiday all over) for the prelims of Short Circuit, since we believed we can get lots of non-insti local participation then.
But when you gave us a slot on the morning of Saturday, we thought we have to depend more on insti junta for participation than the non-IITM junta. That spurred us to come up with Internal Publicity initiatives such as the Mascot and the Teaser Questions.
As they say, ever adverse decision has some positive spill-offs! :)
@ Sunday: Right, poor Raghu! ;)
Anoosh and I used to play songs in turns. He would play (mostly) gospels for sometime, I would then play songs from my Hindi collection for a while.
@ Taz: Thanks yaar!
Btw, ISO 9001:2008 ki treat kab mil rahi hai? :)
you guys truly showed that elec can be fun. kudos to the brilliant planning and execution by your team. hopefully we can carry this tradition forward in the coming shaastra s.
the internal publicity you guys did really rocked !!! i am sure that definitely increased enthu and participation for your event manifold.
Nice description. The fact that you have videos is awesome
@ Suvinay: True, the Internal Publicity did turn out to be really good.
We're relying on juniors like you to take Short Circuit forward in the coming year(s).
@ Chinmoy: All thanks to a Photography vol (Manekha) for shooting those videos!
kya baat ha bhai sahaab
iitm ko maana padega
Haire Aanoo, nananka ID ru tu post karuchhu?
Q)What's in elec??
A)What's not in elec??
1 must accept that elec is fun too
after participating in short circuit
one last thing
---------elec rocks
@ Tarun: Was that Q-A a PJ? ;)
Elec does rock!
This was truly an unwind event. The event was cleverly planned in such a way that, any guy who knew basic networks would have cracked the prelims easily.
As far as the final is concerned i felt finding out 'Convolution'(in dumbcharades) was more difficult than any of the actual technical questions. Sorry raghu I was not able to decode your 'revolutionary' acting.
Overall, the event was real fun.
@ Amrith: "Revolutionary acting!" :lol
oriya re achi na "deri re asila kintu bhala se asila"eha ku pura pramanita karichu ehi blog re ,bhala se au sankhipta re barnana karichu tora "short circuit" bhabisyata re ahuri adhika asa karuchi tori tharu .
Misre and Anoosh did a wonderful job I should say... One event which I was anticipating a lot ..and it was fun definitely
Elec Junta rock !!! \m/
P.S : Misre could have invited a celebrity for the finals .. :P
Ya, we could have; but we didn't want the focus to shift away from us and the event. ;)
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