Skills beyond the classroom

The department of computer science at Surana College organised a two-day workshop, called ‘Tech Hunt 2013’, in collaboration with Nurture Talent Academy and Computer Society of India, recently.

A Srinivas, the head of the department, says, “It’s important to acquire skills beyond what is taught in college for a successful career ahead.Opportunities like these should be grabbed.”

This workshop aimed at improving knowledge and career prospects of students by teaching them about new technologies.

The workshop included idea generation, where the students — who were split into different teams — were required to generate web ideas.
Essential web development skills like HTML, CSS and photo editing were also shared with the students.

Effective use of plugins on a website, how to create a quick social networking site, how to do marketing via networking sites and how to pitch an idea and handle competition were the other topics dealt with.

Meghana Kamath, a student, shares, “We’ve been exposed to different things that aren’t a part of our syllabus. They taught us about web-communication skills and the basics of business, entrepreneurship and technology.”

Naveen V, a final-year student, adds, “We were given a 45-minute class about entrepreneurship and the intricacies of setting up a website for the same. This helped make us more technologically aware and acquire more skills.”

Murthy, a second-year student, opines, “This workshop and the experience derived from it will definitely add to our resume. We were given an insight into many interesting aspects — like social networking sites — and this extra knowledge will definitely help me with my future projects.”

Naveen J, a second-year student, comments, “I feel very motivated to experiment and try new ideas now. We had heard about many websites that implemented these tactics, but to be able to try them out ourselves was a great opportunity. This workshop has helped us go beyond boundaries and implement our talents and creativity on one platform.” 

Amith Grover, CEO and founder of Nurture Talent Academy, says, “The concept behind this workshop is to encourage idea generation and to explain to the students about how to use technology to market a product.” He adds, “It’s an initiative to encourage budding talent and entrepreneurs across the country. We will be selecting three teams from the existing 40 teams, who will take part in the final round to be held at IIT Mumbai.”