Lahore University and Managements sciences (LUMS) is all set to hold a four-day science and technology gala, which engages the science and engineering universities of India in order to promote creativity and scientific discovery among the student of the country, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday.
Psifi, a student’s society at LUMS, is arranging the four-day event of Science and Technology. Students from reputed institutions of the country will also take part.
According to the organiser, the event would be held from January 18-20, 2012, while the goal of the event is to improve the state of scientific innovation in Pakistan and stimulate students to learn through challenges and teamwork. ‘PsiFi’ is a science olympiad pioneered by SPADES, a student-run society at LUMS. SPADES aims to advance learning and creativity in science and engineering by integrating it with other disciplines, and PsiFi is the frontrunner in this initiative. For the event, PsiFi has invited competent teams from high schools and universities from all over Pakistan, including NUST, GIKI and UET. According to PsiFi’s assistant director, the event would be filled with academic contests, each of which is tailored to meet the interests of the participants; those who have a proclivity towards destruction may take part in Robo Wars, whereas those with a sense of natural curiosity may take part in Cognito. He said such events allowed participants to “experience, experiment and explore” the practical applications of science and enjoy it while doing so, adding that the aforementioned tagline was what defined PsiFi. Since these events spanned all the major fields of science, namely Biology, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science, students would have a variety of competitions to choose from.
He said one such academic event was Robo Wars, in which all teams were first required to design robots under given specifications; the next step would be releasing the robots into the battleground, where each robot would try to destroy. The last robot standing would end. Another planned event is the Tour de Mind, which is more subtle. He said it was a multi-round trivia test which would test the students’ theoretical concepts and knowledge of practical applications of science in relation to new situations. According to society members, apart from inviting teams from all over Pakistan, PsiFi would also be collaborating with student societies from renowned science and engineering institutes of Pakistan, which would allow these societies to design academic events pertinent to fields they want to specialise in, such as textile. PsiFi also developed a link with leading universities of the subcontinent, such as the Indian Institute of Technology, simultaneously working on a delegation exchange programme.
