Hyderabad: CODESS, a global community for women coders, established by Skype in March 2013 to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field, was hosted by Microsoft, in Hyderabad today. Prakash Thekkate, General Manager, Microsoft India Development Center welcomed the women engineers from various companies.
CODESS Hyderabad is one in a series of CODESS events worldwide and second in the series to be organized in India. CODESS entered India in May 2014 in Bangalore. Themed ‘Coding an Innovative Enterprise’, CODESS Hyderabad provided the attendees an opportunity to interact with women achievers in the area of engineering.
This theme is relevant as India is seeing a steady rise in technology startups and is emerging as the third largest base for startups after the US and UK. Innovative thinking, enterprising approach and problem solving attitude are some of the key skills to build a startup. These skills are also important to be a great coder. The theme, therefore aimed at aligning thoughts, drawing parallels and providing a common platform for the participants to share experiences as entrepreneurs and coders.
Around 84 women coders from Hyderabad with experience in development, testing and project management were invited to attend the event at the Microsoft India Development Center campus in Hyderabad. A special session called Startup Express gave an opportunity for the attendees to team up and think of a business idea using just two words.. The ideas were presented to a panel and were judged on the basis of originality. Winners were given cool goodies and gift vouchers.
Talking about Codess, Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India R&D Pvt Ltd said the program aims to bring together women in engineering to share personal and professional experiences, network and learn from each another. He further added that Microsoft is deeply committed to ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace as it enables to foster an environment where diverse perspectives and ideas can result in innovative solutions. Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO, 3five8 Technologies (Apartmentadda.com) said, “If an enterprise solves a problem that affects a sizeable population and is scalable, it becomes an innovative enterprise. She shared her experiences in starting apartmentadda.com and how it helped in better managing large societies. She advised the young engineers to be passionate about their idea and build on it to make it a scalable one.
During the panel discussion, Madhu Jalan, Co-Founder, SoclNow shared her insights on how they wanted to take the route of solving a challenging technology issue and make a business case for it. She further went on to share her experiences “Sentiment aAnalysis” done by her organization for the recent national elections. She urged attendees to be ready to face new challenges and be tenacious in their endeavor.
Ravi Narayan, Director, Microsoft Ventures advised the engineers to have their basic business fundamentals strong. Sridevi Jasti, Founder, Vibrant Living, shared the importance of planning and customer delight in helping a business grow. She shared her journey of serving healthy food and how technology helped her to do the job she loves the most.
