Battle of Brains! ‘Scintilla 20I8’- a State Level Quiz Contest at Fr Muller Medical College
Mangaluru: I MBBS students from 20 colleges forming 40 teams converged at Fr Muller Medical College-Mangaluru to unleash their hidden knowledge of Biochemistry in the State Level Quiz Competition “Scintilla 2018” organized by the Department of Biochemistry, Fr Muller Medical College, on Friday, 13 April 2018.
‘Scintilla’, the Annual Biochemistry Quiz Festival of FMMC had begun in 2013, with a motto of recognizing the best medical students in terms of their knowledge of Biochemistry. ‘Scintilla’ has walked through five glorious years with the support from all actively participating zonal level colleges.
‘Scintilla’ has been recognized as a platform for the exchange of ideas, innovation, and learning by medical undergraduate students from all the region, so much so that ‘Scintilla’ has been granted patronage by FMMC. The overwhelming response by regional colleges has encouraged the organizers to host the Scintilla from Regional to State Level Competition this year- and the response has been great with 20 colleges participating from all over Karnataka, including Mysuru and Bengaluru.
The Quiz competition began with invoking God’s blessings through an audio-video prayer presentation, followed by welcome address by Dr Jayaprakash Alva-Dean, FMMC. The Quiz contest was inaugurated by lighting the lamp by chief guest, Prof Aloysius Sequeira-Dean, NITK-Surathkal, along with other dignitaries on the dais, namely- Fr Rudolph Ravi D’sa-Administrator, FMMCH; Fr Ajith B Menezes- FMMC; Dr Malathi M- Prof and HOD of Biochemistry, FMMC; and Dr Arun Kumar K- organizing secretary.
Following the introduction of the chief guest by Dr Ramalinga Reddy-Asst prof in Biochemistry, FMMC, the chief guest Prof Aloysius Sequeira addressing the gathering said, ” Biochemistry is the science concerned with the chemical basis of life. It deals with the structure, properties and chemical reactions of biomolecules that are present in a living system. Living systems are composed of various biomolecules like carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, water and nucleic acid etc. Life depends on the interaction of various biomolecules and biochemical reactions. Any abnormalities in these process may lead to disease. Knowledge of chemical nature and reactions of biomolecules (biochemistry) is essential to understand health and diseases. It can be said that all diseases have a biochemical basis.”
He further said, “Quite simply, biochemistry is the chemistry of living things. More precisely, the chemistry of living cells. Living cells are really nothing more than an isolated aqueous environment where a series of chemical reactions occur. The reason biochemistry is important in terms of medicine is that, for example, many drugs exert their influence by altering cell chemistry, or biochemistry. Thus, it is important to understand biochemistry in order to understand how many drugs function. Biochemistry has been evolved for decades, and Machine Learning plays an important role in Biochemistry. In the next 50 years, nearly 70 percent of jobs will vanish taken over by computers/machinery- but the help of human beings will be still needed. This is a unique contest where students can show their knowledge and also gain knowledge in Biochemistry field. I wish the quiz contest all success”
Fr Rudolph Ravi D’sa speaking said, “It’s nice to note that Scintilla has reached greater heights-once a regional competition has now become a state level, and in the coming years we may see Scintilla being organized as National level competition. Yes, education has changed, where students have become creative. Also, quiz contests will make students smarter, and also they can unleash their knowledge of Biochemistry, and also make them stronger and active in that field. Winning or losing doesn’t matter since you have already represented your college, which is a pride and honour. Best of luck, and learn and gain more through Scintilla”
The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Arun Kumar, while the inaugural function was professionally compered by Dr Shailaja K and Dr Maithryee D S- bot Assistant professors-Dept of Biochemistry, FMMC. Following the formal function was the real fun of the competition, where the participants had to take the written test as preliminary rounds, and out of the 49 teams, 12 were selected for the Oral semi-finals round- out of which the final six were selected to receive the awards and cash prizes.
The first place in the quiz was bagged by Kasturba Medical College-Manipal {Trophy and Rs 9000 cash}; IInd place bagged by Rajarajeshwari Medical College-Bengaluru {Trophy and Rs 6000 cash}; IIIrd place bagged by Fr Muller Medical College-Mangaluru {Trophy and Rs 4500 cash}. Three consolation prizes {Trophies only} were bagged by KMC-Manipal; KMC-Mangaluru and Mysuru Medical College-Mysuru. Dr Shivashankara AR- Assistant Prof. in Biochemistry handled the quiz proceedings, while Dr Ashalatha Rao- Former Prof in Biochemistry at FMMC, KMC was the quiz observer/referee.