BITS Pilani's APOGEE festival back this year, to be held virtually on March 20-21

File image of BITS Pilani campus

The 39th edition of APOGEE, one of India's largest technical festivals, will be held on March 20 and 21, at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS-Pilani). The event would be held virtually this year in view of the COVID-19-related restrictions, the organisers said.

The event was cancelled last year as the campus of BITS in Rajasthan's Pilani was closed after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

"When the world's physicality reached a peak of frailty, the shift to virtuality became an urgency and digitalisation became the only way out. This year’s title ‘The Digitized Renaissance’ is a poetic nod to this new normal, an escape from the real world to the digital one," a statement issued by the organisers said.

APOGEE, this year, is being conducted over the institute's first-ever virtual campus at Gather.town - "a platform that allows users to interact virtually with nearby people, giving them the opportunity to experience the beautiful 1300-acre campus right from their homes", the statement said.

"This platform has already been used to successfully conduct virtual events at universities like MIT and Stanford," it added.

"The platform takes you back to one of the most memorable times on campus", be it wandering across Rotunda, being fascinated by the Clock Tower every time you pass by it, pulling off all-nighters with friends in hostel rooms, or touching the magic in the world-class auditorium of BITS Pilani," the statement further said.

Similar to the previous years, a plethora of professors, directors, representatives and other eminent personalities would be part of the event, the organisers said.

"Professor HC Verma, experimental physicist and Professor Emeritus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has graciously consented to speak at the ‘Think Again Live’, which is the online edition of the ‘Think Again Conclave’," the statement said.

Also joining the event as a guest speaker is Suresh Prabhu, India’s representative to the G7 and G20, a former Minister of Railways, and the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation.

For the “Papyrus Trails”, which encompasses all things literary, renowned filmmaker and actor, Avijit Dutt, will be in attendance. His career has spanned over 100 plays in English, Hindi, and Bengali, the statement said.

"Amongst the transition from real to virtual, APOGEE is back with the audience’s most awaited event N2O, a comedy show starring comedian Nishant Suri, Winner of Comicstaan Season 1, this year," it added.

"And what better completes a festival if not music? The hearts of the audience will resonate with the sounds when EDM sensation DJ Teri Miko and Rapper MZee Bella take charge of the beats," it further added.

This transition to virtuality has brought together an ever-more impressive list of personalities from a wide array of fields, the organsiers said, adding the event "promises to be a unique experience along with being as enjoyable as the prior years, with something to offer to everyone".