Mr. Ruyintan (Ron) Mehta, is an alumnus of IITB (B Tech Chemical 1970). He was very impressed with the work done by IIT Bombay on Aakash and other national mission projects. He wanted to encourage more direct contribution from our students in these efforts. Towards this goal he donated an amount of US$2500, to be used as prize money for a contest, exclusively for current IIT Bombay students at all levels. The contest is to develop innovative applications on Aakash. It is a team contest. A team can consist of minimum 2, and maximum 4 students. Although not mandatory, it is strongly suggested that the composition of teams should have an interdis- ciplinary avour. One of the team members will be the team leader who will be responsible for timely submissions as per the contest schedule. Aakash project will arrange for special training sessions on Android programming, for all participants. In consonance with the spirit of the national mission, all applications submitted for the contest, will be released in open source, under a creative commons license. The awards will be graded by a committee for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize, for the three (3) best applications for the Aakash-2 tablet. The prize money is the equivalent rupee amounts of $1,250 for 1st prize, $750 for 2nd prize, and $500 for 3rd prize. The prizes are named Ruyintan and Monica Mehta Aakash tablet Application Development Prizes. The Aakash project will give a certificate of participation to each student, and special certificates to winners. Last date of submission of the developed applications, is extended to 10th February 2014. It is believed that this contest will provide a unique opportunity for students of IIT Bombay, to display their creative talent, besides contributing to open source knowledge pool.
Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) is a globally reputed professional organization, with activities in all mahor countries of the world. Its past president Prof. Michael Lightner is currently the VP in-charge of educational activities. During his visit to India last year, Shri. Ashok Thakur, Secretary(HE), suggested him for a meeting with NME-ICT project leaders at IIT Bombay, with a possibility of engagement with Indian efforts in using technology for higher education. At Prof. Lightners invitation, IIT Bombay participated in the IEEE students' congress of Region 10, held recently on July 11 to 14 in Hyderabad. Student leaders from over 26 countries in the Asia Pacific region participated in the event. An `Aakash Challenge' was jointly announced by IIT Bombay and IEEE. About 160 tablets were distributed to students leaders from all countries, including India. The contest registration form and details are enclosed. Apart from the prize money, IEEE has also offered the winning students fully paid participation in one of the global IEEE student events
In the Android workshop, we introduced the Aakash tablet, studied how an application is developed in Android environment, and briefly saw the demonstration of some useful applications and content developed at IIT Bombay, for Aakash-2. We wish to develop a collaborative community of Open Source developers who will create Android applications and educational content for the Aakash Tablet, in order to maximize effective learning using Aakash tablets. This competition is targeted only for participants of the workshop conducted on 22, 23 February and 2, 3 March 2013. These participants must have
| Sr. No. | Project Leader Name | College Name | Project Name |
| 1 | Godly .T. Alias | National Institute Of Technology, Calicut | GTAcampus |
| 2 | Roneet kumar shaw | Techno India, Salt Lake Kolkata | DataStructure |
| 3 | Nikhil Bhirud | Dr. D.Y. Patil Institute Of Engineering & Technology, Pimpri | Do U Know? |
| 4 | Jigar Mehta | K. J. Somaiya College Of Engineering, Vidyavihar,Mumbai | SmartKIds |
The competition was announced in December 2012. We received 192 project proposals by 25 April 2013, out of which, 149 projects were selected. 36 final projects were submitted by participants on 15 July 2013. List* of students awarded certificate for Aakash Software Development competition, organized by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay between 5 May 2013 to 15 August 2013.
| Sr. No. | Name | Certificate Code |
| 1 | Alok Joshi | AA2013391 |
| 2 | Deep Shah | AA20131091 |
| 3 | Dharmendra Hingu | AA20131093 |
| 4 | Dildarkhan Pathan | AA20131141 |
| 5 | Godly Alias | AA2013991 |
| 6 | Harsh Kevadia | AA201343 |
| 7 | Jitendra Jain | AA20131092 |
| 8 | John John | AA2013992 |
| 9 | M Prakash | AA2013913 |
| 10 | Piyush Patel | AA201344 |
| 11 | Prathamesh Karve | AA2013392 |
| 12 | Pratik Nalawade | AA2013393 |
| 13 | Rahul Dadoriya | AA2013381 |
| 14 | Rahul Kalkani | AA201342 |
| 15 | Roneet Shaw | AA2013491 |
| 16 | Saurabh Singh | AA2013382 |
| 17 | U V Swathi | AA2013912 |
| 18 | Vipin Yadav | AA2013383 |
| 19 | Vishal Bhingaradiya | AA201341 |
| 20 | V J Shamily | AA2013911 |
Each certificate has a unique QR-code for verification. The QR-code contains Student's name, Certificate Code and link to this page.
*If you have any queries regarding this list please post it on Google-group.
