The story started with a highly motivating GBM, instilling
in us the wish to learn all the engineering skills in few weeks. We attended
all the lectures of Electronics and Robotics as everyone does. We were about to
participate in some robotics events but the coordinators conducted a quiz to
test our knowledge and we were out. We were really in a sad situation because
now we had nothing to participate in our first technical competition. In a
depressed mental state and saying all sorts of foul words to the coordinators,
we were lazily browsing through the Takneek website. Suddenly one of my friends
pointed towards the 30 point event Tremor. The problem statement was to design
an earthquake resistant building model using wooden sticks. Initially we were
not all interested in a boring civil engineering event but the thought of
winning 30 points right away for our Hall lead us into it. We discussed with
our wingies and came to know that none from our batch was participating in the
event. We were now seeing it as a real golden opportunity to do something cool.
We studied the given problem statement and all the literature suggested
thoroughly. The deadline to submit the abstract was only three days away. I
still remember how we called the coordinators more than 10 times everyday,
raising questions, discussing with them and clarifying our doubts. Even one of
the coordinators gave us a short tutorial on earthquake engineering. Somehow
with the new concepts learned and from the old concepts of centre of mass and
stability we prepared our design. We also had to submit the simulation model of
the design suggested but having less time we just drew the projections of it on
some A3 sheets. When we submitted the abstract to the coordinators, they were
stunned by the TA drawing skills of my roomie Sravan. But there only we came to
know, that there were 3 more teams participating in it from our hall and they
were all 2nd yearites. Our all dreams just shattered. But the next
day turned out really special for us. Two abstracts were selected from our hall
and ours was one amongst them. Even the coordinators appraised our work a lot.
We got the material two days before judging. As we had no
prior experience in wood work, we contacted some of our seniors. They not only
came with us, but remained with us till the end. With two nite-outs and a lot
of hard work, we completed our design well before the judging of the event. When
we reached with our model in the testing laboratory, one of the assistants
there seeing its strength and stability said-“It will not break even if it is
kept for 5 mins on the shcok table.” We were overwhelmed. Finally the
competition started and we saw the models collapsing, breaking and falling on
the ground. When our model was placed on the table, all of us were red with
nervousness. But the assistant was correct, nothing happened to our building
even when it was tested for 1 minute duration. We were now sure that we have a
fair good chance of winning. Finally the results were declared, and guess what
we were first. All the happiness showered on us from the skies. And to add to
our joy, the other team from our hall was declared second. We were super excited
now and even started “Hall 3 ka tempo high hai”, in the lab itself.
We returned to our hall, carrying those unharmed buildings
as our trophies and shouting and cheering with our full effort. We came and
placed the models in the quard. A large group of students surrounded us,
praising our efforts and congratulating us. There was a sudden wave of joy in
the Hall because of the 48 points which we won in a single shot. After this
whole episode, I developed a huge interest in civil engineering. Earlier I used
to think that it is just about putting one brick on top of the other, but now I
realised that it is much more than that. It is a complex and wonderful science
without which our lives will become helpless.
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