Initiative aims to foster spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst the University students The NIIT University (NU) has announced the launch of a Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) on its campus in Neemrana. A Collaboration Agreement was signed today to formalize the partnership between Microsoft and NIIT University in the presence of Vijay Thadani, Co-Founder, NIIT University, Dr. Rajendra Pandey, President, NIIT University and Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited. Under this Agreement, Microsoft will collaborate with NU to facilitate setting up Microsoft Innovation Centre (MIC) with an aim to foster the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst University students, by helping them apply their knowledge and technological know-how to real life problems and thus open employment and entrepreneurship avenues for the students. Vijay Thadani, Co-founder, NIIT University said, “The unified purpose of promoting a research centric approach, for developing skilled manpower for the Global IT Industry has brought NIIT University and Microsoft together, to launch Microsoft Innovation Center at our University campus in Neemrana. Through this initiative we aim to foster the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in our students.” Microsoft Innovation Centers (MICs) are state of art technology facilities for collaboration on innovative research, technology or software solutions, involving a combination of government, academic and industry participants. While each center tunes its programs to local needs, they all provide similar content and services designed to accelerate technology advances and stimulate local software economies through skills and professional training, industry partnerships and innovation. Since the launch of the programme a total of 29 MICs have been set up in India. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited, said that the Microsoft Innovation Centre at NIIT University will give students the opportunity to experience the latest in technology, sparking new ideas and innovation. The MIC at NIIT University will be among the other such centers worldwide, facilitating collaboration on IT-based research and development, product development and management, technology advancement, professional training, industry partnerships, placement opportunities, skill management, knowledge transfer and strong industry-institute interactions. The University will get access to key resources such as new platforms and software from Microsoft for the effective functioning of the MIC. The NIIT University currently offers 4-year BTech programme in three streams: Biotechnology (BT), Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), and Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE). Each stream has a very strong research-focus and industry aligned curriculum. It also offers MTech Programmes in Educational Technology, Embedded Solutions & Convergence, Computing & Communications and Bioinformatics; and PhD programmes in all the above disciplines. The University also offers MTech Programme in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Source: Education News