Yahoo! India Research & Development will be hosting a University Hack Day event for IIT Kharagpur (India) called “HACK U” as a part of its yearly activities of holding the event across various countries.
Around 250 engineering students are expected to participate in the four day event from 17th to 20th March. The event that promises learning, hacking and fun is a part of its ongoing commitment to nurture talent and innovation amongst the youth of this country.
“HACK U” is an idea conceptualized to provide students with the chance to work on product ideas and deliver prototypes within a 24 hour “Hackathon” that comprises of coding, camaraderie, demos, awards, food, music and jollity. The creative and analytical juices of students are kept on test in a bid to win cool prizes at the end.
Coming to the event, the procession starts with a series of hack-related presentations and tech talks by Yahoo! engineers to enlighten the minds of young students. The 24 hour “Hackathon” then kicks off where students start making their own digital products. They say that it’s not about the perfect code, its just your creativity, a cool idea and a working prototype. Over the course of the four days, students will be able to interact with Yahoo! web experts, receive hacking tips and hands-on exposure to cutting-edge applications and technologies. The last day of the event is tomorrow, don’t miss it, especially the demos.
The concept of “HACK U” is borrowed from an event called “ Open Hack Day” that happens across all the Yahoo! offices around the world. By initiating “HACK U”, Yahoo and IIT wish to provide students a platform to build and develop applications. These applications are built using Yahoo!’s Open APIs like YQL, YAP, etc.
Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, said that, “The response to Yahoo! HackU at IIT Kharagpur shows that world-class innovations will flower when young minds of the students come in contact with the rich development environment and challenges provided by Yahoo!. The student community at IIT Kharagpur welcomes the event with great enthusiasm and will engage in intense development over a period of three days in collaboration with Yahoo! experts. Students will demonstrate several interesting apps, many having the promise of commercial use in future, as a part of the event. All of us at IIT Kharagpur look forward to deeper collaboration with Yahoo! through similar events in future.”
Rajeev Rastogi, Vice President and head of Yahoo! Labs Bangalore said, “Yahoo! is the premier digital media company. We are intensely focused on creating digital content and experiences that connect people to what matters most to them. We encourage students to use this as a guiding principle while building their hacks. During HackU, students will get the chance to access some of these technologies and insights as part of Yahoo!’s commitment to nurture the spirit of innovation, both on and off campus. Our association with premier research institutes like IIT Kharagpur fosters innovation, research collaboration and talent for our internship programs. It creates an ecosystem that is a winning partnership for both students and the industry.”
By initiating such events, Yahoo!’s goal is clear. They want to spread the need to deliver meaningful and relevant digital experiences to users of the Web. Doing it in participation with the youth of the country seems to be a good start.
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