Feature

CSE Festival 2008

Nashid Shahriar

WITH the slogan “Where creativity leads revolution,” the department of Computer Science and Engineering of BUET recently organized the CSE Festival 2008. Among the events of the festival there was a National Collegiate Programming Contest, a Math Olympiad, an IT Fair, a Project Show, a Career and Research Talk Show, Rally, Sports, and a Cultural show. Students from renowned Universities including BUET, Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna University, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, North South University, BRAC University, East West University, Northern University, Asia Pacific University etc. and ICT related companies participated in the different events of the CSE Festival 2008.

The CSE Festival was launched formally with the mock test of the National Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC) on 23 October. Professor Dr. A. M. M. Safiullah, the honorable Vice Chancellor of BUET, inaugurated the programming contest. In total 52 teams from 30 different universities participated in the programming contest. The former ACM world finalists in the country were the judges of BUET NCPC 2008. BUET Falcon team secured the top position after solving 6 out of 9 ACM standard problems in the NCPC. Tanaeem M Moosa, Md. Mahbubul Hasan, and Shahriar Rouf Nafi were the contestants in the BUET Falcon team. DU Knights and NSU Arcturus secured second and third position respectively.

The Inter-University Mathematics Olympiad was a 2 hours contest that contained 25 problems covering all disciplines of mathematics. Dr. M. Kaykobad, Professor CSE Department led the team of the problem-setters for the Math Olympiad. About 200 undergraduate students from 20 different universities participated in it. Md. Mahbubul Hasan of BUET won the first prize in the contest.

The main events of CSE festival 2008 started with a colorful rally on 29 October. About 600 current CSE students along with some teachers of the Department joined the rally wearing colorful T-shirts and caps of the CSE Festival.

To encourage the innovative ideas of CSE students, a project show was arranged as part of the CSE festival. A total of 43 teams from different universities participated in the show. In the software category, Enterprise Communication System from BUET secured the 1st position and Low cost GPS-GPRS based Tracking System from NSU and Pen Fight from BUET secured the 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. In the hardware category, Optical Mark Reader from BUET secured the top position while Remote Controller for PC from BUET and Micro-Controller Based Wireless Crane from BUET won the 2nd and 3rd prize respectively.

A career and research talk focusing prospects of CSE students was held in the BUET auditorium.

A friendly cricket match was played between teachers and students of the CSE department in the BUET playground. Besides, several football matches were arranged among different batches of the department as part of the fun games.

The prize giving ceremony for the Inter-University Math Olympiad, National Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC), and Inter-University Project show was held on 30 October. Professor Dr. A. M. M. Safiullah, honorable vice chancellor of BUET, was the chief guest in the prize giving ceremony. Professor Dr. Md. Saidur Rahman, Head CSE Department of BUET presided over the prize giving ceremony. Emadul Amin, Director Human Resource of Grameenphone, Feroz Mahmud, Country Manager of Microsoft Bangladesh, Dr. Shahadat Khan, CTO of Eyeball Networks, and Mahfuzur Rahman of IndexIT were present and handed over the prizes to the winners of different contests. In the prize giving ceremony top ten teams of the Programming contest, top five contestants of the math Olympiad and top three teams from each of the software and hardware category of project show was awarded prize money, crests and certificates as recognition of their excellent performance. CSE Festival 2008 ended with a colorful and rich cultural night held at BUET Auditorium on 30 October. A souvenir - 'Anwikkha'- has also been published on the occasion of CSE Festival.

The program was organized by the team effort of the teachers and students of CSE department and coordinated by Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir, Associate Professor of CSE Department.

Department of CSE, BUET
Email: nshahriar@gmail.com