SAP will host the second edition of its youth focused event – SAP Techniversity at KTPO in Whitefield, Bangalore on September 28, 2013. The day-long event will see 5624 students from 348 colleges across India to learn about the latest trends in technology and unwind though a variety of cultural performances.
The technology focused sessions will cover a broad range of topics such as ‘The power of SAP HANA’; ‘Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and their impact on higher education’; ‘Megatrends shaping the world’; and ‘The future of mobility and cloud computing’. Besides this, students will hear from speakers such as M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary Commerce and Industries Department, Government of Karnataka; Ravi Venkatesan, former Chairman of Microsoft India; eminent theatre personality, Boman Irani; India’s youngest CEOs, Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran; among others.
“It is important for organizations today to play an active role in developing more readily employable talent. Through the engagements that SAP undertakes, students from across Karnataka are exposed to and educated on the latest trends and technologies that shape the IT industry in our State,” said M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary Commerce and Industries Department, Government of Karnataka.
To give a big push to entrepreneurship in the state, the Government of Karnataka have asked engineering colleges and universities to dedicate one semester in the last year of course, where students can interact and learn through industrial exposure and engaging with successful entrepreneurs.
In fact based on that initiative, Karnataka state has earmarked annual budgets for entrepreneurship and startup incubation and for this year the budget is Rs45 crore, according to Vidyashankar. Also, Vidyashankar informed the state has setup a cross-broader entrepreneurship program with Silicon Valley in association with TiE that allows students to spend 3 years in Silicon Valley.
Additionally, SAP will unveil the Student Start-ups on SAP HANA program, aimed to foster a culture of innovation among engineering students. Through the program, SAP educates students on SAP HANA and supporting technologies, and mentors them through the prototype and development phase of their projects. This is in addition to SAP University Alliances (UA) which has already educated over 147,000 students from over 90 schools in India on SAP HANA.
SAP University Alliances runs several interesting contests for students such as App Rumble India 2013, Global Connected Car Contest 2013, Utility of Tomorrow Innovation Contest and The Ultimate Data Geek Challenge. The App Rumble India 2013 contest was launched in July and received registrations from over 3000 students. In the DemoJam at SAP Techniversity, the final top five teams of this contest will showcase their prototypes to the student audience.
“Education is the key to innovation and social development,” said Ann Rosenberg, Global Head, SAP University Alliances, SAP AG. “SAP University Alliances helps to educate the talent of the future by empowering students to better prepare for a successful career path within the vibrant SAP ecosystem, be it at one of our customers or partners or at SAP itself. In addition, we are responsible for building and driving the Channel for Innovation from the Universities to the SAP Ecosystem and build the new SAP Ecosystem – the talent of the future. We are passionate about early talent and their potential to contribute and extend the SAP innovation story. Students who get to know us better see SAP as cool a company as Google, Facebook, or Apple”.
SAP University Alliances aims to build ‘The Future of Business Driven by SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud’ in which top universities, customers, partners together with SAP share innovations that form the future of business. With that goal in mind, a venture that SAP University Alliances and SAP Labs drive is SAP Osmosis which enables participating students to understand the latest technologies such as SAP HANA, mobility, Cloud, Big Data through knowledge sessions. In the recent past, SAP Osmosis has engaged with students from Tumkur University and National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.
“SAP Labs India believes that through more interaction between the industry and academia, the skill gap that exists can be significantly reduced. Through initiatives such as SAP Techniversity, Student Start-ups on SAP HANA program, SAP Osmosis and others, we want to expose students and academic bodies to the latest trends the industry so that students can better prepare themselves for the corporate world,” said Anirban Dey, Managing Director, SAP Labs India.
