It was an amalgamation of creativity as well as intelligence at Nirmaan, the two-day fest organised by the civil engineering students of BMS College of Engineering.
There were many competitions and more than 30 colleges from across the State participated in it.
"We also had an engineering college from Noida participating in the festival. We had arranged their travel, stay and food. The festival, on the whole, went off very well. Colleges like MSRIT, NIE and SJCE from Mysore, BVB from Hubli had also participated," said Dhanush, a final-year civil engineering student.
The fest had nine technical events like case studies, town planning, creative modelling, civil quiz, 'Dr Concrete', debate, 'Ground Zero', survey etc. The non-technical category had events like 'Deckster', in which structures had to be made with playing cards; 'Google It', which was an online and offline treasure hunt; poster-making and photography competitions.
Karthick, a second-year student, described the festival as a learning experience. "Last year, I hardly knew anything about the fest and was not quite involved in it. But this year, I have been very active and have helped the seniors in organising the entire thing.
Right from planning the events to looking for sponsors, the event was managed single-handedly by the students.
It was a great experience and the best part is that the teachers gave us the independence to handle the resources and channelise them in a proper way. There was a teacher to oversee everything," he added.
The sports stadium, where the creative competitions were held, was packed with various kinds of models that were made by the participants. "These models were made with playing cards. The models had to have the height of three cards kept one above the other and had to sustain the weight of a hand.
The participants were given staplers, cello tape and a pair of scissors to help them in their work. We had some great models. Some of the students had replicated a bridge," informed Karthick.
The centre of the stadium had a replica of Burj Khalifa, complete with a helipad on the roof.
The model was made by the fine arts' students of the department.