Microsoft start Microsoft Academia Accelerator Program for students

Microsoft India has announced a new program targeted at the country’s student community to give them a heads start in the job market. Called Microsoft Academia Accelerator. Microsoft, in collaboration with the faculty at 10 leading Indian engineering colleges, will aim to enhance the Computer Science curriculum in selective areas and foster greater student-driven innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The programme aims to expose students to critically important technology trends and practices during their formative years, thereby preparing them with vital skills and experiences that will enrich their careers and fuel innovation and impact from India,” said Vinod Anantharaman, head of business management, Microsoft India. 

The programme contains workshops on the modern-day high technology industry and hackathons to build real-world applications that leverage the latest Microsoft platforms, including mobile and cloud. The workshops will be designed as per the availability of the faculty in the respective engineering colleges.

"We are really excited about this program. We strongly believe that efforts like the Microsoft Academia Accelerator which connect students and faculty to the very latest in the industry will accelerate the impact of India's amazing talent. Our effort is made possible because of great sponsors and collaborators in academia—we are truly fortunate to have some amazing partners among the faculty of the colleges that we work with," said Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India. 

The students are made to work in teams to come up with conceiving and implementing original apps for these platforms within 24 hours, with the full support and guidance of Microsoft mentors present at these events.

The top teams will be a part of the finalist forum where the students will get a chance to refine their talent and make use of the opportunity to reach greater heights in the future. The main focus is based on pure technology or code into other equally important determinants of success, such as user experience, design, customer value propositions, etc.