Yahoo! to host ‘Hack U’ for IIT-B students

BANGALORE, INDIA: Yahoo! India R&D will be hosting Hack U — the University Hack Day event for IIT Bombay students between 8th and 10th October at their campus.

Close to 150 students will be participating in this three day event of learning, hacking and fun, said a press release.

Conceptualized along the lines of Open Hack Day, Hack U provides a platform for the student community to develop, build applications using Yahoo!'s Open APIs (Application Programming Interface) like YQL, YAP, or even create a new product concept itself.

This initiative is a novel concept where students get the opportunity to work on product ideas, develop working prototypes in a 24 hour ‘Hackathon’ and eventually have a chance to win cool prizes, said the release.

The event will kick off with a series of hack-related presentations, followed by a non-stop 24-hour hacking session by the students. Hari Vasudev, vice president, Cloud Platform Group, Yahoo India R&D, will deliver a keynote address stressing the need for hacks to deliver personally meaningful experiences to users on the Web.

Additionally, students get to interact with Yahoo! Web experts, receive hacking tips and lessons, and hands-on exposure to cutting-edge applications and technologies.

Professor S. Sudarshan, Computer Science and Engineering Department, IIT Bombay, said that Yahoo! HackU was held for the first time in India at IIT Bombay in Feb 2009, allowing students to interact with top-notch programmers, such as Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP. “Students were introduced to some of the APIs provided by Yahoo! which allowed rapid creation of many interesting applications. It was a great learning experience overall for our students, and we look forward to the 2010 edition of HackU,” he added.

Shouvick Mukherjee, vice president and CEO — Yahoo! India Research & Development, said, “As a pioneering technology company, Yahoo! believes in breeding the spirit of innovation, both on and off campus. Our association with premier research institutes like IIT Bombay helps foster in-campus innovation, research collaborations and talent for internship program, thereby creating a virtuous eco-system that the students and industry can benefit from.”