WIRED TO SUCCEED

EXPLORING THE LATEST TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY BY TAPPING INTO THE CREATIVITY OF ITS STUDENTS, THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT CHRIST IS READYING GLOBALLY-COMPETITIVE GRADUATES

- AJAY SUKUMARAN

The information kiosk at the reception area, the online notice board, the conference room schedules and even a part of the admission process at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru— all use apps developed by students pursuing the three-year Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) course at its Department of Computer Science. Established in 1990, the department today leaves its digital mark across the bustling campus. “A lot of students are now keen on developing mobile applications,” says Dr Ashok Immanuel V., head of the department, sharing how during a recent National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) visit, the usual PowerPoint presentations and booklets were replaced T with a tablet that had a preloaded app developed by three BCA students. “We even offered the app to other departments,” says Immanuel. “This was an important milestone for us.”

To push the students’ creativity on this front, the department last year expanded the scope of its activity club, Labyrinth, adding new focus areas—the high-level programming language Python, the Internet of Things (that is, a network of interconnected physical devices that communicate and exchange data with each other over the internet), besides other mobile and web technologies. “That also paid us dividends when it came to developing products,” says the HoD.