Club Activity – CHEMONYMUS

Department Club Event ‘CHEMONYMUS’

The Department of Chemical Engineering, MVJCE, organized a Club activity ‘CHEMONYMUS’, on 1^st June 2022. The event which started at 12:30pm and ended at 4:00pm was attended by 80 students (38 teams) from the Chemical Engineering department.

‘Every day, we learn something new, but we rarely bother to assess our general knowledge and analytical skills,’ was the thought that led to this event. The event aimed to encourage students to use their critical thinking skills and logical abilities.

EVENT OVERVIEW

Stock points were handed to each competing team, which they could exchange for clues that would reduce stock levels. The team with the most stocks was declared the winner at the end of all the rounds.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

The teams presented models of adsorption column for purification of the effluents from the lakes around Bangalore. The teams came up with different adsorption methods that are effective and economically viable. The two best presentations were chosen from that and given some stocks, which was added to their score at the end.

ROUND 1: Numbers to Words

Each team was given a hint or a question containing numbers, from which words should be formed, with a time limit of 15 minutes. The teams were allocated stocks, based on how long it took for them to solve the problems. This round focused more on the students’ analytical abilities. All the teams finished the round in less than 7 minutes. The team that solved the problem first received the most stock points for that round.

ROUND 2: Gibberish

When you speak or articulate words, the words are supposed to have some meaning. Gibberish, however, sounds like words or speech, but really has no meaning at all. Gibberish can take the form of a single nonsensical word, or a group of nonsensical words. While the words themselves have no definition, the context around them gives them meaning. Gibberish words can be exclamations or stand-ins for real words. The participants were given a few gibberish words, and they had to crack the gibberish to get scores in the form of stocks. Stocks were given out, based on how quickly the teams deciphered the Gibberish words.

ROUND 3: Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is an observed phenomenon in which a large segment of the population misremembers a significant event, or shares a memory of an event that did not actually occur. This is called False Memories, which are constructed by combining actual memories with the content of suggestions received from others. During the process, individuals may forget the source of the information. This is a classic example of source confusion, in which the content and the source become dissociated. For this Round, the participants were given a collection of photographs, only one of which was right, and they had to figure out which image was correct. The teams were awarded stocks, based on how quickly they were able to identify the correct image.

ROUND 4: Chemstox

Number of stocks based on all industries were given to the participants. News based on that company was revealed. The teams had to deduce whether the price of the stock would go up or fall, based on the news provided. If their observation is right, they gain extra stock points, else they will lose stocks. All the teams participated in this Round. In the end, the winner was decided based on their presentation on the adsorption column, along with the total number of stocks they had collected from the four rounds.

The students found the event to be highly engaging and beneficial. They worked together to address the problems, pitching in new ideas and actively participating in this Club activity. As the teams were comprised of students from all the three years of the Engineering course, they benefitted from good interaction among themselves.

Outcome

“Knowledge is true if it’s based on logic, and not memory”. As a change from the regular curriculum, the students felt refreshed, and learnt a lot about time management, teamwork, presence of mind and logical thinking.