[MSP] MSP Asia – Pacific Newsletter – Jan 2015

Posted on 2015-01-31 Edited on 2024-09-22 In Others Disqus:

MSP Asia-Pacific Newsletter

Vol.2 Dec-Jan 2014-2015

Contents:

1.MAIN TOPIC

Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam

2.Super MSP

Vishesh Oberoi (New Zealand), Supatporn Posoknistakul(Thailand)

3.Highlights & Upcoming Events

Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

1. MAIN TOPIC

Today’s Main Topic is Hour of Code!

Japan: MSP Japan joined Hour of Code

On Dec 12th, 2014, one of the events for the Hour of Code by MSPs was carried out with 36 young students who ranged from 15 to 18 of ages at an all girls’ high school in Tokyo. In collaboration with Life is Tech! Microsoft Japan provided the technologies and MSPs helped students write codes as a mentor. Through the event, students learned and developed the programming skills so fast to make an app on time and no one gave up, which made us surprised. From this experience, we now believe the importance for any learner, especially for beginners, to let them have easy access to the first steps with fun and excitement.

“MSP Japan Niki Matsumura”

New Zealand: The Microsoft Student Accelerator Initiative

2014 has been a hectic but rewarding year for MSP New Zealand! The MSPs, along with Ryan Tarak (BDE, DX, Microsoft New Zealand), launched a brand new initiative called the Microsoft Student Accelerator (MSA). The MSA program aims to train students from all around the country on Microsoft technologies and better prepare them for the tech industry of today. The biggest benefit of the program is the placement of qualifying students with New Zealand’s biggest employers in the tech industry so they can gain work experience over the summer.

While 600 students trained in the first phase of the program, around 200 students moved on to complete phase 2 and finally, 94 students were placed with employers after rigorous individual and group assessments. A total of 35 employers participated in the program, including the University of Auckland (largest university in New Zealand), Coca-Cola, Lazyworm Apps (developers of MetroTube), Datacom and a few government organizations. For more information, check out http://aka.ms/MSAInfograph.

Philippines: one of the top countries in the “Hour of Code” global leaderboards

In the celebration of the 2014 Computer Science Education Week (December 8-14), though Hour of Code is not a competition, the Philippines is one of the top countries in the Hour of Code Global Leaderboards for having one of the highest participation rates in Hour of Code activities, with a total of 112 events as of today, January 11, 2015.

Though some of the events were rescheduled due to impending Typhoon Hagupit, that didn’t stop the teams from accomplishing their goal of teaching K-12 students and others from non-tech colleges how to code.

Read the rest of the article here: http://bit.ly/1sKnUkr

Thailand: Hour of Code Thailand

With the cooperation of Microsoft Student Partners from Mae Fah Luang University and Chiang Mai University, MSP Thailand organized Microsoft Hour of Code: Northern Thailand workshop to provide Windows AppStudio training for high-school students in northern Thailand. This event gathered 100 students who joined the workshop to learn how to develop universal application on Windows platform.

Vietnam: Hour of Code in Vietnam

The Hour of Code in Vietnam was held successfully after attracting about 200 secondary school students. Approximately, per session was attended by around 20 students. As an addition, this year saw the introduction of ‘App Studio’ which created interest among the participants.

2. Super MSP

・New Zealand

Vishesh Oberoi: Vishesh has been a key player in making the MSA program a success. Equipped with his experience and strong technical knowledge in Azure, he organized and executed many of the MSP run workshops during the program. The workshops were very well received and the students found them very useful. Great work Vishesh!

・Thailand

Supatporn Posoknistakul: Supatporn has been working as a Microsoft Student Partner since FY15. Her expertise is in design and marketing aspect and she takes part in both leadership and designer role. As a participant in the Imagine Cup Thailand 2014, she showed her competitiveness and friendliness which earned her the most popular award. To expand her technical knowledge, she is currently studying in the Faculty of Engineering at Chulalongkorn University. Aside from this, she loves to discover new innovation sin designing and marketing by herself through relevant work experience.

3. Highlights & Upcoming Events

Japan

・Regular Meeting and Presentation Workshop

Two MSP Japan regular meetings were held last Dec 3rd, 2014 and Jan 14th, 2015. The former meeting was attended by 26 participants (9 participants online) and the latter by 15 participants (6 participants online). After the December regular meeting, a presentation workshop followed and 5 MSPs spoke about the topic: “I’d like to appeal about…” After the presentation, they were able to receive feedback on how to be more effective in their presentation.

・Imagine Cup 2015 Kick-off

On Jan 18th, 2015, we introduced Imagine Cup to approximately 30 students as part of our Top Gun project. The aim was to motivate them create great apps and to challenge the world competition.

・MSPs from Indonesia and Nepal visit Microsoft Japan

As 2014 ended, MSPs from Indonesia and Nepal visited Japan and had lunch with MSPs from Japan on Christmas Eve. The guests were also treated to a tour of Microsoft Japan. It was then followed by a dialogue of the participants, sharing the different activities and interesting styles of each country.

New Zealand

・Future of MSA

Due to the success of the program, the program will be bigger and better in 2015. The MSA program will be the umbrella of all student activities for the year. To reach out to high schools, the program will start earlier in March as opposed to June. For updated information, visit http://www.microsoft.co.nz/msa !

・New MSPs

In search for new MSPs, a recruitment round at the end of 2014 was held and after tough interviews and assessments, a strong team of new MSPs were selected. Many of the selected applicants came from the MSA program. Everybody is very excited to have the new MSPs on board and wait to hear all the fresh ideas they bring. Welcome to the family!

・Farewell Message to all graduating MSPs:

Philippines

・Project Sing! From The Philippines Clinches Honorable Mention In The 2015 Pitch Video Challenge

After the judges have watched all the videos, reviewed the judging criteria, and made their decision, a Filipino team, Project Sing! made it to the honorable mention list for their project in the World Citizenship category. The competition was extremely fierce this year, with many high-quality pitch videos submitted in all three categories. In some cases, the scoring was almost too close to call. Members of the Project Sing! are from Ateneo de Manila University and are active members of the Microsoft Philippines Academic Team. Meet the winners here: http://bit.ly/1ueyN9Q

Singapore

・Singapore MSPs celebrate a fantastic 2014; outlook for 2015 very positive

On 20th of December 2014, Microsoft Student Partners from Singapore celebrated the holidays and a great end to 2014 with a Christmas Party which included some unique coding challenges and games! Everyone had lots of fun over lunch and exchanging gifts! MSP Singapore had a great year in reaching more students throughout the country and teaching them how to code. All of the MSPs look forward to new ways to contribute and grow in 2015. Happy New Year from the MSP Singapore team!

Thailand

・Audience with H.R.H Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

Representative of MSP Thailand team had an audience with H.R.H Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand to show applications on Windows Platform to students who joined the workshop at Chitralada Vocational School. The workshop at Chitralada Vocational School is a part of project that MSP in Thailand focusing on development of high school students to improve their computer science skills for a career in the future.

・Microsoft Technology Roadshow and Dream Spark / Office365 Workshop

MSP Thailand team from Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang teamed-up to organize Microsoft Technology Roadshow and DreamSpark/Office365 workshop at their universities to update and educate students and lecturers about Microsoft Technology, DreamSpark Premium and Office 365 for Education. These group of events drew more than 500 students.

・ImagineCup 2015 BootCamp in Thailand

On 10 Jan 2015, Microsoft Thailand held the ImagineCup Thailand 2015 BootCamp for students who are interested in joining the ImagineCup competition this year. The objective of the event was to promote and explain about ImagineCup’s local round and global round information. Aside from that, students were also given the chance to discuss with international organizations like USAID (United States Agency for International Development) to find the stories or inspiration for their project.

-–Upcoming Events—

・Hour of Code: Central of Thailand

From January to March 2015, MSPs in the central area of Thailand are planning to organize the Hour of Code event for high school students. This 2015, Microsoft Thailand has special category for high school students called the “Windows AppStudio Jr. Challenge.” Hour of Code training from MSP will help high school students learn how to develop Windows platform application together with their preparation for the ImagineCup special category in Thailand.

・MSP Quarterly Meeting and New Year Party

Microsoft Thailand is planning to have the quarterly meeting and New Year Party on 30th of January 2015 for MSP from each university. This meeting will give everyone a chance to share their experiences and exchange information about activities they have done in Q2 and their plans for Q3.

Vietnam

・New MSP Recruitment

To expand the activities of MSPs in Vietnam, more MSPs are being recruited. The recruitment attracted the cream of the crop from the best universities in the country. Undoubtedly, this will be a successful FY year for MSPs in Vietnam.

The interview

Welcoming the new MSPs

・ MSP Internal Training

The objective of the Internal Training was how to use Windows and Office Online in the most useful way. Moreover, many tips and tricks were shared during the training. Most of the participants installed Windows 10 Preview after.

Later that day, the participants were introduced to the Microsoft YouthSpark Program. Everyone got very excited upon learning about the program.

・”Special Christmas for You” Contest

Hundreds of students have started to learn how to use App Studio to make apps. Many IT students signed up for the MVA to learn how to code. This resulted to the publication of hundreds of apps in the store. Each one of them have been tested. Good apps (quantified by the number of downloads and rating) will be rewarded with Lumia, T-shirt and bags.

-–Upcoming Events—

・Microsoft Imagine Camp

January of every year, the Imagine Camp is held to help teams and students get started with their projects for Imagine Cup. For this event, participants are supported on which technology they should use, how to improve their ideas, and so on.

・App Studio Training

App Studio is updating. More and more features have been added every week. The goal is for every student to know how easy it is to make an app for their own need.

・App Studio Hackathon

In the next few weeks, a Hackathon on App Studio will be held. This event will be more complex than the usual App Studio. The prize will be a Lumia for the champion and T-shirt for all participants.

Thank you for reading!

If you have news and updates from your country, we’ll be happy to share it with everyone!

This newsletter is managed by MSP Japan Global team in collaboration with MSP newsletter representatives from each Asia Pacific countries.

If there is any business, please email to Shun.Okubo@studentpartner.com.

Microsoft Student Partners https://www.microsoftstudentpartners.com