Nov 24, 2009
School of Arts & Sciences, Mysore
 

The Amrita School of Arts and Sciences at Mysore was recognized recently by IBM for record participation in the 2009 Great Mind Challenge Contest. A total of 55 teams registered; this was one of the largest numbers as compared to other colleges in the nation.
 

“34 teams have already submitted their Software Requirement Specifications,” stated Mr. Vinayak Hegde, who guided and mentored the student teams. “Nearly 200 students studying for their BCA, MCA, M.Sc. (IT) and MCA degrees took part.”
 

The Great Mind Challenge (TGMC) is a nation-wide software development contest conducted by the IBM every year. This contest is aimed at having students develop innovative solutions using open-source IT tools and technologies.
 

In past years, Amrita teams from the Amritapuri and Coimbatore campuses have won top honors in the contest. For instance, in 2008, a team from the School of Engineering at Amritapuri was short-listed among the top 5 teams of all the participating 11,000 teams in the nation for developing a prototype of a University Admissions System.
 

“The solution must be flexible, scalable, secure and yet simple,” state the contest guidelines. “Users must see value of using your designed system. You must provide maximum in functional scenario description. The GUI must be easy-to-use, professional and lightweight. The system must exhibit a sound run-time performance.”
 

Daunting requirements? The enthusiastic participating teams certainly don’t seem to think so. All 55 teams at Mysore even made time to attend a one-day workshop on their campus, led by an IBM trainer, that was designed to provide them greater awareness of the relevant open-source tools and technologies.
 

Lenovo laptops and iPod Touch and Digital Cameras will be awarded to the winning teams. IBM states that it will also help find a sponsor for the most feasible project from among the Top 10, so that the project can actually be implemented. The project submission deadline is January 2010 and winners will be felicitated in March 2010.
 

Will any of the Amrita teams be present at the awards ceremony? We certainly hope so. We wish them all the best as they compete in this contest.