Microsoft has tied up with 10 top engineering colleges in the country to launch Academia Accelerator programme to develop student-driven innovation and entrepreneurship.
The programme is aimed at improving Computer Science curriculum in the colleges. It will encourage students to build apps for mobile, big data and other platforms, Vinod Anantharaman, Head of Business Management of Microsoft India (R&D), said.
Addressing a press conference here, he said they would reach out to 4,000 students. “This is going to be a long-term association. We are expecting development of 250 apps at the 10 proposed hackathons. We expect development of at least 30 great apps coming out of the programme," he said.
He said the app developers would have the freedom to publish their apps on different mobile platforms. Some of the apps developed in the pilot phase have been published.
The IT major has piloted in five of the 10 colleges last year, before expanding the programme to 10 this year. About 3,000 students were covered in the pilot. Top IITs, IIIT (Hyderabad) and NIT Warangal are part of the programme.
Microsoft would organise workshops on topics relevant to the modern-day high technology industry. It would also conduct hackathons, called code.fun.do, where students build teams and build apps, using Microsoft platforms, including mobile and cloud.