DAIICT students to compete with 180 countries

A team of students from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT), Gandhinagar, grabbed the first position on the national level in Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2006.

The team included Deepak Jagdish, Mohit Gupta, Shreyas Nangia and Rahul Sawhney, who has designed 'Sonique', a solution aims to enable visually impaired people to achieve a high quality of access to day-to-day navigation.

This team will now compete with the students of 180 countries on the international level. "Earlier, we made prototype of the project for the national level contest and now to compete at international level we will have to make the actual product," said Jagdish, who is leading the team.

The third year B. Tech students are currently working on the project to make the product cost as low as possible. "This product which includes pocket PC costs very high and we are trying to reduce the cost as much as we can so that any visually impaired person can buy it," said Jagdish.

Talking about the product, Jagdish said, "After the contest, we are sure that this product will hit the market and will be sold under our brand name."

However, the name of the brand is not yet decided.

This team bagged the first position in the Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2006, held recently on the national level in Bangalore. "The international contest is in the first week of August and we are ready for it," said Jagdish.

Talking to Business Standard, Sheela Gulati, Director "� Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India, said, "At Microsoft, we believe that it is important to harness this extraordinary talent at an early stage and are committed to helping students leverage their skills and make a difference at a truly global level."