CHENNAI: Abishek Kumarasubramanian had come up trumps in several tests including the IIT-JEE, but nothing was as exciting as this.
Having topped the Code4Bill contest organised by Microsoft, this 20-year-old from IIT, Madras will “assist Bill Gates shape the future of technology” during a one-year internship with Microsoft.
“The online technical challenges and interviews were tough. I am exhilarated that Microsoft has acknowledged me. The idea of working with Bill Gates is yet to sink in,” said Abishek after the announcement on Wednesday.
He will work directly with Bill Gates’ technical assistant’s team in Redmond. Code4Bill, announced by Gates during his last visit to India, involved seven months of rigorous competition from January 2006.
More than 24,000 students registered for the contest for pre-final and final year students of technical courses.
The first round comprised three technical challenges and the second round were interviews with a technical panel.
The next round had 19 students doing an internship with Microsoft India Development Center, Hyderabad and the top five in the last round faced a series of technical challenges.
“India is a global innovator in IT and the student community has made a significant contribution. Through Code4Bill, we have met some of the promising technologists in the world and are looking forward to one of them joining us,” said Alexander Gounares, corporate vice-president, corporate strategy, Microsoft.
During their internship, the final 19 students worked on next-generation technologies including an application for geographically-tagged information and a web application that builds on MSN Virtual Earth and allows users to zoom into minute details of a particular area.
India is the first country where students have got this opportunity to work closely with Microsoft.
