Quizzing the IT way

Organised by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Saturday at the Shaikh Rashid Auditorium, Dubai, IT-based quiz saw six teams make it to the final round after a nail-biting preliminary Q and A session. Arpit Raorane and Manas George, Grade11 students of The Indian High School, Dubai, walked away with the over-all winners’ trophy while Anand Ravindran and Shreyas Ravishankar from the Dubai Modern High School walked away with the first runners up trophy.

The boys from IHS walked away with an iPad each. “We did read up on some old quizzes, company quizzes and did the basic Wikipedia search,” said Arpit. The boys said that they do not think of themselves as geeks, but everything they do is based on a computer.

“Our school project work, ac demic notes and all other content are online,” added Arpit. “We came here with an open mind and it feels great to have won the quiz. We definitely plan on participating next year,” said Manas. Twelfth grade runners-up Anand Ravindran and Shreyas Ravishankar from the Dubai Modern High School said that preparations for the quiz were mostly last minute.

“I ran searches on Wikipedia and a lot of quiz blogs. No, I do not spend all my time online. I do check up on content online, but I sit on the computer only for half an hour. I get my updates on my mobile,” said Shreyas. Meanwhile, Anand said he has no plans of pursuing a career in IT, but wants to do an honours degree in Economics.

Shreyas’s parents Maya and Ravishankar Naryanan said that their son had made them very proud.

“He quizzes a lot, and we encourage him to partake in more of such events,” said Maya. Other schools that made it to the finals are: Abu Dhabi Indian School, Our Own, Al Warqa’a, Our Own English High School, Sharjah and Al Ain Junior School.

Head of Middle East, Africa and the Mediterranean of TCS, Varun Kapur said: “This is the second time we are holding the quiz in the UAE. The quiz has been an ongoing one in India since the last 12 years. See, we want kids today to know that IT is not a profession only for geeks.

Students attending the TCS IT Wiz in Dubai on Saturday. - KT Photos by Mukesh Kamal

Quizzing is a fun, learning platform and it is something kids of all age groups enjoy.” He added that IT is an applied field, and it is used in almost all walks of life. Participation to the quiz from the UAE has almost doubled and TCS aims to make this a bigger event in the coming years.

“We want youngsters here to be a part of an exciting IT career in the future. Everything in IT is application oriented. Ten years ago we asked them about Hotmail, now even Facebook is passé,” added Kapur. Quiz master Giri Pickbrain said that the idea behind the quiz is that since information is very easily accessible today, we want to test kids on the lines of application.

“The whole point is to check how students apply the available information. There has been a huge improvement in the overall popularity of the quiz. Teams are taking it a lot more seriously. Since last year, they have understood the pattern of the quizzes better and they have prepared themselves a lot better,” said Giri.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com