Feature

TeleMpiad @ NSU

Mahdin Mahboob

10 events, 350 participants, 20 renowned institutions..... TeleMpiad at NSU It doesn't get bigger than this!

It doesn't really get bigger than this. Ten events, three hundred and fifty participants, twenty renowned institutions; the TeleMpiad at NSU, the second of its kind, was a huge success by all means.

On the 18th, 19th and 20th of June, the North South University Wireless Forum organized TeleMpiad' 07 which consisted of Olympiads, Gaming contests and an Extempore Speech competition. A total of more than 350 students participated in this year's TeleMpiad. The Olympiad consisted of four separate Olympiads: Telecommunications, Electrical and Electronics, Mathematics and Physics. It enabled technical students from institutions all over Dhaka, to compete under one roof. The gaming contest consisted of FIFA-2007, NFS-MW(Need For Speed Most Wanted) and Counter Strike. Twenty computer stations were networked for the gaming contest; World Cyber Games, Bangladesh Chapter's judges paid a visit and they mentioned it as the biggest gaming contest after their own trademark event, the World Cyber Games, Bangladesh Competition. It maybe mentioned that the Champion and Runner-up of Fifa-2007 will be able to directly participate in WCG-BD FIFA 2007 competition from 3rd round bypassing all the preliminary stages! Also, the Winner of NFS-MW will directly participate in WCG-BD NFS-Carbon competition from 2nd round. The Gaming Contest was also marked by a fun round for faculties and a lot of faculties of different departments of NSU participated in the contest.

NSU Wireless forum has been organizing TeleMpiad since last year. This is the second TeleMpiad. All the members were working day and night for the last two semesters to make this event a success. But on the 17th of June, the night before the day of the event, the action had finally begun. Twenty computers were brought from various places and set up until midnight in the venue of the gaming contest. Afterwards, the members all had to stay at a friend's house in Bashundhara for the night and then in the very early morning of the 18th they all set off for the university. Since it was too early for any transport, they actually had to walk to the university. They begun setting up the networks at 7 in the morning and finished up just in time for the opening ceremony at 12:00! Before the opening ceremony all participants had to collect their TeleMpiad ID cards, TeleMpiad Tshirts and other gifts. After the opening ceremony, the gamers and the Olympiad participants were sent to the venues of their respective events. The 3 hour long Olympiad was participated by about 70 students from 10 different institutions. The participating institutions included : hosts North South University, BRAC University, East West University, Khulna University, IUT, IUB, Ahsanullah University, Daffodil University, AIUB, UIU and University of Liberal Arts. Other than the host team (NSU), BRAC University had the biggest team with more than 20 participants registering for the event. Separate winners were selected for the four sections of the Olympiad.

Nur Ul Arafat Shomik and Md. Intekhabul Hafiz from BRAC University grabbed the first and second prizes of the Mathematics section. Nawal Mahmood (NSU) and Chowdhury Mahbub Elahi(IUT) took the Physics prizes while the Electrical and Electronics prizes went to Mabroor Wassey and Mowaze Shabib Bin Mohsin of IUT. IUT also excelled in Telecommunications with S M Nizamuddin and Moinul Momen getting the first and second prizes respectively.

The gaming contest continued through the second and third day. The faculty gaming contest began on the second day, and it attracted a huge crowd of spectators. The inter college Olympiad also kicked off on this day. It was a two-hour Olympiad with subjects of Physics and Mathematics. The participating teams were : The Aga Khan School, Mastermind, Sunnydale, Scholastica, Gateway, Oxford, Manarat, GED and MIST. Wednesday was the final day of the TeleMpiad. The gaming rounds started early in the morning and an Extempore Speech competition took place in the afternoon. Mabroor Wassey of IUT grabbed his second prize of the event by excelling this event with Jannatul Lamea of NSU securing the second position. The certificate awarding and closing ceremony began at the evening, drawing curtains to this three day event. The closing ceremony started off with a video presentation of the TeleMpiad '07 and was followed by a few speeches by the Chairperson of the CSE Department of NSU and the faculty advisor of the forum. The certificates and crests were given out to the winners and organizers after that. Among the people who received crests were the VC of NSU, the Chairperson of the CSE Department, the faculty advisor of the Wireless Forum, the faculties who had organized the Olympiad questions, the Chairman of all NSU clubs, and the Proctor of the University. Crests and certificates were also awarded for the runner ups and winners of all the competitions. In FIFA, which had the highest number of participants, Munasir Mahtab Priona won the title beating Nayeem H Chowdhury.

Fahad A Gafoor topped the NFS gaming contest. In a grueling battle of nerves in the Counter Strike final match, 'Tajmahal Tandoori' excelled over the runners up team, 'Bo$$'. The winning team constituted of Faysal Naved, Rajin and Barish from NSU, Siam from NYU, Sakib from IUB and Jishan, an A'Level student. The ceremony ended with an interactive discussion about technological awareness in today's Bangladesh.

The organizer of this event, NSU Wireless Forum is one of the newest clubs at North South University, founded on the 21st of March 2005. The forum is led by President Radia Abdul Wahab, Vice president Himel, General Secretary Saad and Treasurer Manjurul. Two official posts are held by Elnaz and Silvia. All these executive body members as well as the about 300 members of wireless forum worked hard to make this event a success. The forum has organized different competitions, workshops, seminars and other fun events during its inception. Apart from these a lot of research work is done by the Forum which is part of their research and training program, where they have ongoing projects on various technical subjects. Study tours and visits by professionals in the field are also organized on a regular basis by the forum.

All in all, the whole event was a huge success. It was a learning experience for all the organizers and participants, having some fun at the same time! I'd like to end this article with special thanks to Radia and Elnaz, two of the main organizers of the event and executive body members of NSUWF, for providing me with all the relevant information and pictures of all the events that took place in the TeleMpiad.