BY: WAJIHA IMTIAZ
ITECHON is being conducted at the IT Department Quaid-i-Azam University with a theme “Creativity and Innovation for the future”. It includes Technology based events, Arts and Literary events, and Entrepreneurial events. An informative 2-hour seminar was conducted on 21 December 2022, focusing on the Microsoft Strategic alliance with Higher Education Commission HEC Pakistan. Mr. M. Sheikh Arsalan (Country Education Business Manager at Microsoft) introduced the HEC strategic agreement, student programs, and training programs under HEC umbrella strategic alignment. He highlighted how HEC and Microsoft Education Transformation Agreement ETA can facilitate student-connected campuses, academic research, tech companies, training, boot camps, and workshops. Adoption and Impact of Microsoft Education Transformation Agreement ETA in Higher Education Institutions provide benefits such as free softwares and genuine windows. Students can use Tools for Teaching, Software Development Kits SDKs, and free Azure credits which are made available with hands-on training.
ETA-FY2023
The objectives for the Microsoft Education Transformation Agreement ETA 2023 include:
- Establishment of skill and certification programs, free of cost certifications to be made available for students.
- The AI, Cyber security courses and softwares (such as Microsoft Azure, and Dynamics 365) provision during student training, supporting the ‘enable, train, certify’ agenda which is also supported by the Government of Pakistan.
- Among major technologies sessions, about 40 boot camps for all technologies for all universities (more than 250 in Pakistan) to be conducted, for e.g Azure boot camp is a two-day long workshop, similarly 2 day long workshops will be conducted on each technology.
- Online, Offline boot camps are to be launched via participation invites to the university focal persons to be passed on to the students who can leverage the training, prepare for exams, and get certified.
What is Imagine Cup?
Student committee engagement is an MLSA program that helps students within universities who create awareness, this student ambassador program has tasks other than community work, and there are benefits provided to the ambassadors inclusive of 150 USD Azure credits monthly, genuine software, Software Development Kits worth 1000’s of USD. The major program includes need-based technology advisory. Talking of the Flagship events anticipated in 2023; Recently Microsoft renewed ETA with HEC and a mega event was conducted within HEC premises, Education Minister Rana Tanveer participated, and Chairperson Executive Director HEC launched the “Imagine Cup” (for which regionals and national finals are anticipated within two months). Previously Mega GIKI team from GIKI was the winning Imagine Cup team among teams from the Middle East and Africa. There are cash rewards not only for the winning team but also for the runner-up teams in the regional, and national categories, etc.
Mr. Hanzaila Maqsood (Lead MLSA, former Imagine Cup Judge, World finalist in Imagine Cup, National Champion in Imagine Cup, Country Lead MLSA Pakistan) provided in-depth guidance to pitching ideas for Imagine Cup. The eligibility criteria for pitching your ideas require Student Ambassador Skills such as basic knowledge of tech, demonstration, presentation, and teaching skills. The startup projects should be related to technology, and how ideas are taken to the solution such as those in incubation centers. But in Imagine Cup the teams have to choose one of the provided project categoriesfor their projects. The project categories include 1: Earth, 2: Education, 3: Health, and 4: Life Style. The Imagine Cup 2023 World Champion will receive a win of USD100,000, a Microsoft Azure grant, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. As per the trend, 42 teams qualify for the World finals globally, and two teams are always from Pakistan and this has earned Pakistan recognition as the number one participating country. Hence there is a good opportunity for teams from Pakistan to make it to the world finals. The last date to register/apply and pitch for the Imagine Cup Pakistan is 15 January 2023. The participants are given three minutes to present their idea and submit their document with the problem solution. In February National Finals will commence, which will be followed by the World Finals in March and the World Championship in May 2023. However the participants must be trained on data wrangling, creating a virtual machine, MVP (minimal viable product), and app-based algorithms on Azure, as per the criteria of eligibility to pitch. The participants must pick a world problem, read relevant research papers, design a feasible solution, incorporate Microsoft technologies and practice presenting the solution. So the points leading to an effective pitch are 1 Problem, 2: Solution, 3: Technologies, 4: Working, 5: Business Model (Stakeholder/cost/ number of people), and 6: Competitors (describe how your solution is better than the market options). The informative session was closed by Deputy Director HEC Mr. M. Rashid and Director IT Department QAU Dr. Adeel Anjum with appreciation and significance of such efforts for bridging the industry- academia gap.