The largest science Olympiad of the country, Psifi, organized by the Lahore University of Management and Sciences’ Society for the Promotion of Engineering and Sciences kicked off today. The day started off with the registrations of over 1000 delegates, continued for 5 hours.
The opening ceremony followed the registration procedure. The ceremony was held in the Sports Complex of LUMS. The complex was full of delegates by the time the ceremony started. The event was graced by the presence of the Pro-Chancellor Sir Babar Ali and the Vice Chancellor of LUMS, Sohail Ahmed Naqvi. The ceremony started off with the national anthem of Pakistan, which was sung by the entire hall with full zeal and zest. The announcers then acknowledged the event’s sponsors and gave a special shoutout to Techjuice for being their media partner. Afterwards, there were addresses by Sir Babar Ali and the VC of LUMS, who appreciated the initiative to promote science through Psifi. Sir Babar showed special appreciation for the teams who were visiting from other parts of the country. The secretariat of SPADES came on stage to address the participants, stating how Psifi will be an amazing learning experience for them. After their address, a short video showing the planning phase of the event was played. The efforts put in by the host team became evident by the video. Once the video ended, the announcers proudly declared: “Psifi IX has officially commenced!”
The initial briefings of some of the academic events started around 6’o clock, with each briefing being held simultaneously in various halls throughout the campus.
The briefing of Scavenger Hunt contained guidance regarding the oncoming rounds, with a detailed presentation on what will be required from the teams. The presentation was delivered by members of the host team, including the co-head of the event, Mr. Fateh Farhan. When the presentation finished, the teams were given a sheet containing questions. These questions were part of a Scavenger Hunt. The answer to the questions leads to a location within campus premises and the team which solved the questions the quickest won the hunt!
Furthermore, the series of events held between 8 and 10 PM included TDM, short for Tour de Mind. 8 teams were taking part in the event. Since it was the first day, there was a series of riddles given to the teams. The sheet containing the riddles had 14 blanks at the top and the first letter of the answer to each of the questions below was to be entered in the corresponding blanks. For example, the first riddle said: What has hands but can’t clap? The answer: Clock! So, the first letter of the clock is “c”. Thereby, the letter c had to be input into blank number 1, and so on. The teams took up the challenge with enthusiasm and frantically engaged in conversations among themselves, discussing each of the 14 riddles, trying to solve them as quickly as possible. Albeit they were unsuccessful in solving the riddle, teams representing Lahore Grammar School and Aitchison College were the first ones to submit their sheets to the host team.
One of the other rounds being held was “Think”, which involved a whole lot of jargon. Teams were given an initial briefing about what will go down in the coming days, including guidance about encryption, decryption, binary language and critical thinking etc. Members of the host team one by one enthusiastically took to the podium to teach a new set of skills to the participants.
The day officially came to an end after the teams were done with their respective events. Rounds will officially commence from tomorrow and we highly await the experience of seeing the huge flock of young adults implementing their knowledge on a practical basis!
Now, for the spoiler. TechJuice is bringing you this exclusive update in collaboration with the event secretariat: The concert, which is due to be held on Monday night, is of Falak and Asrar! So, gear up everyone, things are about to get lit!
This will be all for now, check back tomorrow for our coverage of the second day!
