Beyond the Textbooks: Empowering the Next Generation of Tech Leaders at TechVista

The fourth day of the Inter School Jaipuria Festival (ISJF) featured the IT Fest – TechVista, which had an interesting and intellectually stimulating line-up of events, with over 400 students from 26 schools across Uttar Pradesh participating. Running in its 11th edition following its inception in 2007, this is the fifth year that TechVista has been part of the ISJF.  Over the years, TechVista has evolved significantly, and this year in particular, it engaged robustly with the rapidly accelerating technological revolution by organising events that reflected the changing technological landscape.

The stated mission of the Directors of TechVista is to ‘empower, enhance, and expand young minds to new horizons in the field of technology, which is not just limited to our textbooks’, and they succeeded in accomplishing this mission. TechVista offered a wide plethora of events, a total of 20, enabling students to apply textbook knowledge through practical activities while integrating the intellectual acumen with creative abilities.

Amongst the plethora of events were those that underscored the confluence of technology and literature, integrating critical thinking and creativity through a holistic approach. ‘Clash of Titans’ saw talented debaters participate in Oxford Debate (Round 1) and Asian Parliamentary Debate (Round 2). ‘Lexi Quest’, the Spell Bee, gave the semantic wizards an opportunity to display their linguistic prowess. ‘Glitch Tales’, a plot twist story contest, provided an avenue for the creative storytellers to explore tech-related topics in two rounds, with a written round followed by a live stage round. ‘Reason Treason’ tested the logical reasoning capabilities of the participants by judging their ability to think critically and to answer questions based on logic and reason. ‘Hermes Troops’, a newsletter-designing event, saw the talented students cover the TechVista events using the software of their choice.

Another series of events merged the technical and creative dimensions of the audio-visual realm. ‘Click Vista’, the photography competition, tested the visual storytelling capabilities of the participants. ‘Audio Atelier’ assessed the students’ audio-editing skills, while ‘Metamorphosis’, its visual counterpart, evaluated their photo-editing skills. ‘The Director’s Cut’ was a video-editing competition in which the students were required to create a one-minute video using the resource files provided to them. ‘Teaser Thrive’ was a ‘Script Writing and Teaser Making’ competition, in which the students pre-submitted scripts and made clips using files provided to them.

There were events that exclusively challenged the students to explore and test their computer knowledge and technological skills.  ‘Bug Brawl’, a decoding event, judged the ability of the participant to analyse a problem without using the computer. ‘Codes Jr’ was a programming event in which the participants from Classes 8 and 9 were required to develop programmes for a given set of problems, while ‘Code Wiz’ was another programming event for Classes 11 and 12 in which they were required to write programmes for a set of questions. ‘Weave a Web’ was a website designing event in which participants were asked to develop a functional website based on details provided to them. ‘Techvertise’, an advertisement-making event, required the participants to make a digital advertisement for a product and promote it based on its USP (unique selling point). ‘Bitskreig’ was a quiz event with two rounds covering technology-related themes.

Furthermore, several events brought together design, strategy, gaming, and presentation skills. ‘Trade Marked’ was a logo-designing competition in which the participants were provided with a name and description of a company for which they were asked to design a logo. ‘Cubetcha’, the speedcubing competition, rewarded those with intellectual agility and dexterity. ‘Gamecon’, a gaming event, had three rounds of games belonging to different categories. ‘Key Note’ provided a platform to test the technical and presentation skills of students through the preparation and presentation of a PPT on the topic given to them.

Dr. Dheeraj Mehrotra, Vice President of GEMS Education, was the Chief Guest of TechVista, and he generously shared his time with the School. The student Directors, Samagra Singh and Kshitij Vats, under the able guidance of the Event Coordinator, Mr. Rajeev Singh, and the Teachers in Charge, Mr. Arun Singh and Vijay Rastogi, ensured the seamless conduct of the events. They, in turn, were steered by the leadership of the Principal, Ms. Promini Chopra, along with the support of Ms. Deepa Wahi, Vice Principal (Academics) and ISJF Coordinator. After a day of innovation and exploration, Seth Anandram Jaipuria School, Shaheed Path, Lucknow, was declared the Overall Champion of TechVista, while City Montessori School, Kanpur Road Branch, was declared the Runner-up.