By IANS,
New Delhi : Over 10,000 students across India joined forces Tuesday to unleash their creativity at the Microsoft Student AppFest, a unique coding event enabling students from colleges of all sizes and stature to develop their ‘dream app’ ideas alongside professionals using the latest Microsoft technologies.
The students landed in 54 key hubs in 45 major cities across 18 states of India, and the reverberations of the day-long coding fest were felt across the country with each state hosting a bustling hands-on workshop run by a total of 150 Microsoft Student Partners on-call to give students a first-hand app development experience.
“An average of 250 students from each college contributed to the total number of 10,000 participating students. The tremendous response amounts to over 60,000 collective hours of coding. An estimated total number of 3,000 full apps were imagined and created during the one-day code-a-thon,” a Microsoft statement said.
“The goal of the event was to ignite the imagination of students from colleges representing the full spectra of Indian academia by offering the chance to design the perfect app with guidance from professional developers.”
“Young tech-enthusiasts were given the freedom of casting their app-vision on the latest Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms; building, designing and testing bespoke apps geared at phones and tablets while receiving guidance and support from Microsoft mentors, trainers and Student Partners to realize their creation,” the statement said.
Microsoft International president Jean-Philippe Courtois inaugurated the Appfest at Saroj Sadan, University of Mumbai, Kalina.
AICTE chairman S.S. Mantha said on the occasion: “Opportunities like these are the game changers in today’s world. These are the skills that the future generations need to understand and learn in a globally collaborative world.”
Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Rajan Welukar said: “University of Mumbai is keen on creating competent skills in students as per the need of the government, industry and other social sectors. Conducting workshops on application development for the students by the leading industries facilitates them to achieve the expertise required.”
“We are bringing up new specialized courses such as IT infrastructure management in collaboration with industry to bridge the gap between academia and industry. Appfest by Microsoft being conducted across 50 centres in India and being inaugurated here in University of Mumbai will stand as a landmark for achieving the above objectives,” Welukar added.
The diversity and breadth of colleges that participated in Microsoft Student AppFest made the event a truly representative occasion. Participation was inclusive of key metros from colleges such as IIT Mumbai, Ahmedabad but also saw representation from a plethora of vibrant academic and engineering colleges from Tier II and Tier III cities, the Microsoft statement said.