DB2 on Campus in India

On Saturday September 13th, I arrived in India for the first time to promote the DB2 on Campus program. Unfortunately, I had some bad luck at the beginning of the tour: The same day I arrived there were some terrorist attacks in New Delhi (but I was in the hotel, so I was safe). Then the following day on Sunday, when I was boarding my plane to Chennai, my IBM India colleague calls me and says that the local government in Madurai had declared Monday a public holiday. This meant the three presentations scheduled for me that day had to be cancelled given that there would not be any public transportation for the students. It was really unfortunate as the K.L.N College of Information Technology had also planned the inaguration of the DB2 User Group, and I was going to be the main guest in the ceremony. Nonetheless, I did get in touch by phone with the DB2 Student Ambassadors in Madurai, and couriered them some t-shirts and DVDs so they could continue promoting DB2. The student ambassadors at K.L.N College of IT (Raghuveer Babu and Pradeep Kumar) are very active and motivated. They are helping me interview other DB2 Student Ambassadors in India.

On Tuesday I visited Anna University in Chennai (picture below) and delivered a 3-hour presentation to almost 150 students. On Thursday I visited Truba university in Bhopal ("The city of lakes"), and there were also more than 150 students and 5 teachers (Picture to the right). I'm receiving several applications from students now who want to become DB2 Student ambassadors. On Friday, I had a very fruitful meeting with IBM India colleagues. IBM India is doing a great job to reach to universities and give them access to IBM software. They started the TGMC (The Great Mind Challenge contest) a few years ago, and now they are running it every year with a huge amount of students participating. This year's main theme for TGMC is to become the "XML superstar" taking advantage of DB2's unique pureXML technology. The DB2 on Campus DVDs containing the free book and videos have been well received in India, and IBM India will reproduce it locally and use it for TGMC.

Though it was a short visit, I do plan to return to India again. I see a "can do" attitude in almost every student I meet in India. This is also the attitude IBM India has, and they are eager to execute a program I presented to them on the Friday's meeting.

Raul.