University tie-up with Microsoft to benefit over two lakh students in eight districts

---

Software to be provided under DreamSpark programme of Microsoft

It will provide competitive edge to students, says Vice-Chancellor

---

Kakinada: JNTU-Kakinada has entered into an agreement with Microsoft for distributing free software to its students under the Microsoft’s DreamSpark programme, which will benefit over 2,00,000 students from 226 affiliated colleges of JNTU-K in eight districts.

Latest tools

JNTU-K Registrar V. Ravindra and Microsoft India Head (Local Software Economy and Academic Alliances) Phani Kondepudi exchanged copies of the MoU on Thursday in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Allam Appa Rao.

On the occasion, Prof. Rao said students of JNTU-K would have access to the latest IT tools and software provided to them by Microsoft, which gives them the competitive edge over others and helps in preparing for future endeavours.

Mr. Phani said students would be offered free academic software licensing and software developer and design tools under DreamSpark, which till date benefited some 5,00,000 students in the country.

The following software would be made available to the students: Microsoft developer tools (Visual Studio 2005 Express, Visual Studio 2005 Professional, Visual Studio 2008 Professional, Visual Basic 2008 Express, Visual C++ 2008 Express, Visual C # 2008 Express, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, XNA Game Studio 2.0 and 12-month free academic membership in XNA Creators’ Club.

Microsoft designer tools: Expression Studio 2, including Web, Blend, Design and Media. Microsoft platform resources: SQL Server 2008 Developer, SQL Server 2008 Express, Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, Virtual PC 2007 and IT Academy Student Pass.

JNTU-K Chairman of Board of Studies (Computer Science) E.V. Prasad, Director (Industry Institute Interaction) K. Padma Raju, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden) international coordinator V. Gurudutt Kumar and others were present.