The Hindu : National : A dream date with Bill Gates & co.

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Wednesday, Aug 02, 2006

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National

A dream date with Bill Gates & co.

Special Correspondent

Abishek Kumarasubramanian

HYDERABAD: Most aspiring IT professionals dream to go on a date with Microsoft Chief Bill Gates. Imagine honing one's skills under the direct supervision of the IT czar! Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Chennai who recently finished his bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from the IIT, Madras has the rare privilege of being able to work with Bill Gates' team of technical assistants. He was declared the winner of "Code 4 Bill," a nation-wide talent hunt launched by the Microsoft Corp to identify India's best student technologists.

Recognising India's potential to nurture world-class technical talent, the "Code 4 Bill" contest, a first of its kind initiative by Microsoft in the country, was launched to provide students a unique opportunity to showcase their talent and work directly with leading technologists.

More than 30,000 aspiring professionals from undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD streams participated. After thorough filtering at all the stages, 18 were chosen for the finals, held in Microsoft's office here on Monday.

It was no an easy task for Mr. Abishek to make his way to the finals, that featured analytical and skill tests and personal interviews with the MS' technical teams. His project involved identifying a snippet of code in a target program.

Besides numerous applications ranging from virus checking to software watermarking, the biggest challenge Mr. Abishek faced was lacking access to the source code. He was allowed to work only with the binaries.

Despite harbouring dreams of being a doctor, Abishek eventually joined the IIT. Clueless about which branch of engineering to choose, he opted for electrical engineering as he thought the IT sector was in the doldrums then.

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