IIT Boy to Intern with Bill Gates.
Microsoft India has announced that Abishek Kumarasubramanian from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has been selected for a one-year internship with Bill Gates, and will work directly with Gates' Technical Assistant's team in Redmond.
The team comprises the world's best technologists, who formulate and drive Microsoft's technical strategy. Abishek was selected after seven months of rigorous competition under an initiative named Code4Bill, which was announced by Bill Gates during his last visit to India.
Over 20,000 students registered for the contest, which included three online technical challenges, and two rounds of one-to-one interviews. In the second last round, nineteen students interned with Microsoft India for a period of two months, out of whom five graduated to the last round, with one Abhishek finally emerging the winner.
Commenting on his win, Abishek Kumarasubramanian said, "Today, technology touches the lives of billions of people around-the-world, and it's amazing to think that I will be working with Microsoft, where I have an opportunity to impact each of these lives."
"Participating in Code4Bill has been an exhilarating experience, the competition has been tough and challenging, and has provided me an insight into cutting edge product development and innovation. Even though it will take some time for me to completely believe that I have been chosen to work with Bill Gates himself - I think that this is an unmatched opportunity, and am really excited about it," he said.
The first stage of the contest saw participants being given three online technical challenges. The top 10 percent based on the cumulative scores at the end of this round, then moved to the next stage. At this stage, the students underwent a round of one-to-one interviews with a technical interview panel. Next, nineteen selected students were required to intern with Microsoft Research, Bangalore; and Microsoft India Development Centre, Hyderabad.
These nineteen are from India's premier technical institutes, including IIT, Madras; IIT, Rourkee; Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, New Delhi; and the Army Institute of Technology, Pune.
During their internship, the students worked on next-generation technologies to develop solutions that address current day challenges. An application was developed by Udayan Khurana from the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala to help in the search for geographically-tagged information. Another Web application was developed by Pratik Stephen from the Army Institute of Technology, Pune to build on MSN Virtual Earth, allowing users to zoom-in and see minute details of a particular area.
In the last round, the top five participants faced a series of challenges administered by Bill Gates' former Technical Assistant.
Code4Bill was initiated as recognition of India's leadership in nurturing world-class technical talent, and is aimed at pre-final and final year students pursuing various technical streams across India. Incidentally, India is the first country where students have got this opportunity.
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posted by Parag Kalra @ 7:22 PM
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