Achievements

When khadi made the IBM cut The Times of India

Gujarat Vidyapith Students Bag Top Honours At A National Tech Event

If the word Gujarat Vidyapith conjures up images of khadi-clad students labouring over a charkha, spouting Gandhian philosophy and leading a spartan life, then its time to do a reboot. For, in a coup of sorts, final year students of Gujarat Vidyapith’s Master’s in Computer Application (MCA) course have beat over 60,000 students from over 2,000 colleges across India to emerge as the first runners-up at IBM’s prestigious ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’.

The software developer quartet of Dilip Prajapati, Paruik Bhavsar, Pratik Patel and Sariq Shaikh designed a low cost‘Vehicle Identification System’ that uses the latest radio frequency Identification (RFID) kit and service-oriented architecture (SOA) to identify and track a vehicle. “The country is way behind in vehicle tracking technology that can be used by police and insurance companies to get the details of any vehicle on the roads. We decided to come up with a low-cost solution,” says Sariq Shaikh, group leader of the top-notch Gujarat Vidyapith team. But the going was not all that easy. Not only did they have to spend sleepless nights for an entire month due to college classes and practical exams, they even had to go that extra length to be taken seriously by other competitors.

Obviously the prospect of khadi-clad students making a tech-savvy presentation was too much for some of the other jeans and Tee clad participants to take. Which is what also makes the victory sweeter for these students, most of whom hail from humble backgrounds. “We have studied in Gujarati medium schools but had to present our project in English. With practice we overcame this constraint and even bagged the highest marks in the presentation segment,” says Dilip, one of the team members. “I enjoyed the expression on everyone’s faces when we were declared the second best team. Obviously they had never expected simple khadi-clad folks like us to make it so far in a techie contest,” he says gleefully.

“I come from a family of farmers, where no one has even passed SSC. It feels great to have bagged this award from a global IT company. Today I am confident. Though I wear khadi and am not very well conversant with English, I am as much of an IT wizard as any one else.” said Pratik Patel

“My father’s salary is less than the cost of the air ticket that took me to Mumbai for the competition. No one in my family and the pol I grew up in know what ‘software’ means. They just stared when I told them I had been awarded for developing software.” says Dilip Prajapati

“Being with students from across the country who were fluent in English and sported modern clothes, was a big culture shock. Many, seeing us in khadi, tried to challenge us. But I was confident and in the end, we proved we were better than the others.” recalls Paruik Bhavsar.

Sariq Shaikh stays with my family in a two room house and have to work part time to support them. “But I wanted my parents to feel proud of me. That inspired me to defy all odds and learn new technologies. Though my parents do not understand what I am doing, they feel that I am on the right path.”

The Economic Times

Gujarat Vidyapeeth runners up for IBM’s “The Great Mind Challenge 2007”

The contest is a part of company’s academic Initiative, the challenge provided student programmers with a unique opportunity to develop innovative solutions using open standards-based IT tools under grueling real time situations.

The Indian Express

Gujarat Vidyapeeth runner-up in IT contest The Indian Express

Gujarat Vidyapeeth was declared the joint runner-up along with Amrita School of engineering, Tamil Nadu in the third edition ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’ Organised by IBM.

Jansatta - Gujarat

Gujarat Vidyapeeth announced as runners up for IBM’s “The Great Mind Challenge 2007” Jansatta

IBM announced Gujarat Vidyapeeth (team Gvcc challenger) and Amrita School of Engineering (Deemed University), Tamil Nadu as the runners up at the felicitation ceremony of ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’ held at Mumbai today. Organised for the third time in India, the winners of ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’ are K.L.N. College of Engineering (Tamil Nadu).

Loksatta

Headline- Gujarat Vidyapeeth announced as runners up for IBM’s “The Great Mind Challenge 2007”
Publication- Loksatta
Edition- Ahmedabad

Competition helps develop innovative technology solutions for Government, IT industry and Academia

IBM announced Gujarat Vidyapeeth (team Gvcc challenger) and Amrita School of Engineering (Deemed University), Tamil Nadu as the runners up at the felicitation ceremony of ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’ held at Mumbai today. Organised for the third time in India, the winners of ‘The Great Mind Challenge 2007’ are K.L.N. College of Engineering (Tamil Nadu) .

Gujarat Samachar

Headline- Gujarat Vidhayapith student build vehicle tracking projects Publication- Gujarat Samachar Edition- Ahmedabad ( Summary: Did story after meeting students, it does mention that the project got prize in The Great Mind Challenge, The story talks about projects details such how vehicle tracking solutions works, what were challenges, how they overcome and how their teacher helped them etc.)