The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Microsoft lab opened at IIT-Madras

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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Microsoft lab opened at IIT-Madras

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Microsoft India has opened a laboratory at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) that will give students access to the company’s latest Windows technologies.

It has invested Rs.90 lakh in the facility, which will be used by graduate, postgraduate and research scholars of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments.

The initial focus of research in the laboratory will be on Windows terminal services, device drivers and embedded Windows technology.

It was inaugurated on Monday by Will Poole, vice-president of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, which runs programmes to help disseminate technological skills in communities around the world.

He said the project grew out of Microsoft’s long association with the IITs, and a “realisation that there were insufficient opportunities for students to be exposed to Windows technologies.”

“The lab will also have value to Microsoft in generating skilled people,” Mr. Poole said. “Our business, especially in embedded technologies, has been growing over the years, and given that there is expertise in IIT-M, this was appropriate for us.” Experts from Microsoft’s development centre in Hyderabad and the company’s headquarters in Redmond in the United States will regularly participate in exchange sessions at the laboratory to engage with students.

Several software companies had also expressed interest in getting involved with the facility to use the platform it provided to develop their own systems software, Professor V. Kamakoti said.

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