Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Young innovators take centre stage

– Photo: S. Gopakumar

Young techies: BarCamp Kerala in progress at Technopark on Sunday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Even if somebody offers me a degree for free I would not accept it. Not having one itself is my identity.”

Twenty five-year-old Binny V.A. from Kochi is a youngster who takes pride in revealing that he is a college dropout. Soon after he flipped through the syllabus for Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) course, a few years back, Binny realised that he was already way too ahead of the course material. Today, Binny is one of the most successful freelance Web developers in Kerala.

“I started dabbling in IT tools right from my Plus One days. When I completed Plus Two and joined college, I found that the college syllabus was totally outdated. It did not take long for me to realise that I would be wasting my time if I pursued the course,” said Binny on the sidelines of BarCamp Kerala here on Sunday.

Binny’s presentation at the BarCamp on ‘Development – What they don’t teach you in college (Everything Important)’ was an instant hit. The session covered topics on the latest tools and languages used in Web development.

“These are typically things that will never be taught in a college classroom but that companies teach during the recruits’ training period. The IT field is developing so fast, by the time a university decides on a syllabus and prints books, they will be outdated,” said the whacky Web developer.

With a steady clientele and enough projects to keep him busy, Binny is more than satisfied with his freelancing career so far. Although forming a company could improve his scope and reach, he only sees it as a possibility for now. “Today, companies come seeking my service. If I form a Web development company, it might help me scale up my career. But as of now, I am only viewing it as a possibility,” said Binny who is also an avid blogger.

As many as 150 techies, including college students, IT professionals and young innovators, participated in the fifth edition of BarCamp Kerala organised at Technopark. Around 19 interactive sessions on various topics were held.

Blogging remained one of the hot topics at the event where presentations were made on the micro-blogging platform Twitter. Plus Two student Aravind Jose from Kottayam, one of the most prolific Twitter users in the State, presented a Twitter Video.

“How to build a popular Web site in 6 months’ by Mani Karthik, ‘Improve your Google search skills’ by Sultan Arun, a session on distributed computing framework by Vishnu Gopal and ‘Re-wiring and Re-inventing tools of Education using IT-enabled Logical Memory Maps’ by Dr. Kishore were some of the topics discussed. Rajesh Venugopal made a non-technical presentation on the Young Kerala initiative.

The event also helped the Technopark Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in identifying around half a dozen innovations for its Micro Technopreneurship funding support. Project proposals on electronics-based hardware and software systems on enterprise reporting by Jibin Samuel of Mangalam Engineering College, ‘Pump ON/OFF system’ by Bobin Paul and Arun S Praveen from Matha College of Technology, North Paravur, and a project useful for the fishermen community called ‘DSP Fish Finder and GPS-based Marine Navigation’ by Boby Thomas Panicker were among those short-listed by the Technopark TBI.

Secretary-cum-Registrar, Technopark TBI, K.C. Chandrashekharan Nair said that a maximum support of Rs.75,000 could be provided to young innovators under this scheme.

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