IIT Kharagpur learns hacking tricks

Updated on: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Yahoo! India R&D hosted ‘HACK U’– the University Hack Day event for IIT Kharagpur students on campus between March 17 and 20.  Close to 250 students participated in this four day event of learning, hacking and fun, which is part of Yahoo!’s on-going commitment to nurture talent and innovation among today's student bodies.

 

Conceptualized along the lines of Open Hack Day, Hack U provided a platform for the student community to develop and build applications using Yahoo!'s Open APIs (Application Programming Interface) like YQL and YAP, or even to create a new product concept itself. This novel concept provided students with the opportunity to work on product ideas, develop working prototypes in a 24 hour ‘Hackathon’ and eventually stand the chance to win cool prizes.

 

The event kicked off with a series of hack-related presentations and tech talks by Yahoo! engineers followed by a non-stop 24-hour hacking session by the students. Praveen Ramachandra, senior architect at Yahoo! delivered the keynote address reinforcing Yahoo!'s vision around the need to deliver personally meaningful and relevant digital experiences to users of the Web.

 

Over the course of the four days, students interacted with Yahoo! web experts, received hacking tips and hands-on exposure to cutting-edge applications and technologies.

 

Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, head of the department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, said that, “The response to Yahoo! HackU at IIT Kharagpur shows that world-class innovations will flower when young minds of the students come in contact with the rich development environment and challenges provided by Yahoo! All of us at IIT Kharagpur look forward to deeper collaboration with Yahoo! through similar events in future.”

 

According to Rajeev Rastogi, vice president and head of Yahoo! Labs Bangalore, “We are intensely focused on creating digital content and experiences that connect people to what matters most to them.  We encourage students to use this as a guiding principle while building their hacks. Our association with premier research institutes like IIT Kharagpur fosters innovation, research collaboration and talent for our internship programs. It creates an ecosystem that is a winning partnership for both students and the industry.”

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