Microsoft Academia Accelerator reinforces the need to integrate academia and the IT industry
This day-long celebration of the achievements of the academic year, presented an interesting line up of speaker sessions and panel discussions from Microsoft and faculty. It also showcased 16 top engineering projects from across campus hackathons conducted over the year.
Academia Accelerator is one of Microsoft’s most comprehensive campus engagement programs aimed at building a deep, long-term association between industry and academia in India and reiterates the company’s mission to enable people to realize their full potential.
Students displayed solutions based on popular technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality at the showcase held at Microsoft campus in Hyderabad. Learning, accessibility and road safety were amongst some of the favored themes which were showcased.
The shortlist of projects was a result of a yearlong engagement where more than 2000+ students participated across 16 colleges and built over 350 projects.
Building on the close association during the year, faculty and senior leadership of Microsoft came together to discuss topics such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and most importantly, the need for the IT industry and academia to work together to fuel innovation.
“Academia Accelerator aims to provide insights to students about important technology trends and practices and also adding the layer of cutting-edge industry know-how to the existing Computer Science curriculum, thereby”. said Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Ltd.
“The success of this program is testament to the great engineering talent we have in India. We have seen significant uptake for the Academia Accelerator program in the last five years as students recognize the importance of understanding technology trends and undergoing practical training sessions during their formative years,” he added.
