Oculus 2020: Technical Events

IEEE Conclave

IEEE-SPIT in collaboration with Oculus organized a panel discussion of industry experts on 3rd February 2020. The dais was graced with the presence of esteemed panellists: Mr S Venkatarama, a pioneer in blockchain technology and Mr Gopi Krishna Maddi, the Chief Operating Officer of Voltas.

While Mr Venkatarama shared his experience of co-creating TCS’s (Tata Consultancy Services) stock exchange program and shed some light on the subjects of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Mr Gopi Krishna Maddi provided deep insights into the growth and performance of an organisation. He also stated the importance of optimum utilization of various opportunities that we come across in order to have a prosperous career. 

“The event was extremely informative and the inspiring words helped me develop a new perspective ”,said Hargobind Singh, from FE EXTC.

Capture the Flag

Capture the flag was organised for the first time during Oculus on the 8^th and 9^th of February. With an interesting deviation from the traditional way of playing the game, the participants were left baffled as tried solving the various coding challenges posed to them during the game. Cryptography, computer-networking, a virtual scavenger hunt reverse engineering and many more interesting puzzles were a part of the competition. Shruti Rampure and Pranav Chitale from S.PI.T. bagged the first prize followed by Taiyeeba Chikalia and Devang Chajjed, again from S.P.I.T, and finally, Hardik Trivedi and Shubham Pednekar from Fr. Conceicao Rodriguez College of Engineering stood third.

“Organsising the event for the first time in our college was a challenge but we saw a lot of enthusiasm from the participants.Our sole objective was to motivate people in this field”, said the organisers.

“We were exposed to a variety of intriguing problems that left us racking our brains and we are really glad to have participated in the event”,said Aditya Motwani from FE Computers

Codatron

“If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.”

The Oculus Coding League was back with a grander version of Codatron this year. With massive participation from coding enthusiasts from all over Mumbai, the competition was designed keeping in mind the current trends thus providing the participants considerable exposure to competitive coding.

The competition took place in three rounds. A pre-event was held prior to the competition, the winners of which were directly promoted to round two. Ameya Jangam, Sarthak Nasit, Shuham Goel, Arbaz Addewala and Hrishikesh Lamdade were the winners who got the head start.

The first round comprised of real-world problems and participants having a score greater than zero were eligible for round two. Participants with a score more than 20 points in the second round qualified for the finals. The final round revolved around reverse coding and after an intense session of coding, Bhavya Shah stood first among the first-year participants. Malhar Bangdiwala and Vedanth Raja stood second and third respectively. Nilay Bhatia (1st place), Rayyan Merchant (2nd place) and Surendra Kumar Pandey (3rd place) were the winners of the event that consisted of participants studying in any year higher than the first year. 

“The contest was so challenging that nearly nobody could score full points in the final round.Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun!”, said Yash Brid from FE Computers.

Virtual Stock Market

“Monogamy is not a virtue in the stock market. Flirt with many and marry a few is the mantra here.”

The flagship event of Oculus, “Virtual Stock Market” was back with a bang on the 8^th and 9^th February. A fun simulation of the traditional stock market, the event witnessed participation from over 200 students. With interesting plot-twists and real-time incidents to impact the share prices, the participants played with an objective to maximise their profits by buying and selling shares.

Winners from day one include Hrishikesh Lokhande who stood first and bagged a cash prize of Rs: 12500, Suyash who came second and took home an award of Rs: 7500 and a team of members – Ayush and Ajinkya who won the third prize of  Rs: 5000. A similar line-up of winners marked the successful conclusion of the event on day two where a team of Utkarsh Jain and Sakshi Chheda stood first, followed by Darshit Patel and lastly, Yash Bhadane.

“The event was put together very well and we had fun learning about the trends of stock markets!”, said Pranav Kumar from FE IT.

Article by Sumeet, Aman and Rucha

Photography by Jahnvi, Gaurav