Microsoft for students - MSP life experience

We are grateful for the preparation of the article to Mikhail Tryakhov ( @PerseptronYar ) from Akvelon (Yaroslavl) for help in writing this article as a participant in the MSP Summit at the Imagine Cup in Seattle.

I recently visited the finals of the Imagine Cup in Seattle. In five days I became a participant in almost a dozen events, how diverse, so creative. I don’t think it necessary to tell you about the internship at Microsoft, about how the interview is conducted and other standard topics of such events - dozens of articles have been written about this, why play a broken phone?



I represented the Microsoft Student Partners movement at the Imagine Cup from Russia, uniting student partners around the world and helping to build effective interaction between Microsoft, universities and regional companies. This program should be known to most of my peers if they were active participants in User Groups (community of professional developers) or student conferences during their student years. In the zero years of the 20th century, at least in my beloved Yaroslavl, this was almost the only community uniting people who were inclined to revitalization and movement among IT-employees. Microsoft invested mentally and financially, supported these bright undertakings, spoke a lot and soulfully about its products, as a result of which we received a generation with such a significant number of .Net programmers. Of course, the market played a role,Dreamspark , personal preferences and much more - but only a person who has no contact with MSP can deny the significant influence of the MSP movement on the starting step in choosing a career in IT.



Now a new decade is in full swing. Microsoft's course has changed, and this movement has been adjusted. Now the MSP community is a financially optimized association that helps active students gain access to serious products (MSDN subscription, the same Dreamspark), conferences, educational programs, vouchers and much more. The agenda has also changed.

Now the community is focused on effective communication for the development of the educational process in IT. This is everything from best practices on nodejs to the jump start on hosting IOS applications using Azure tools, from mitaps to regular lectures. The list of topics has also been expanded. The narrow focus on the Microsoft stack at events is a thing of the past - if you want to set up a hackathon on Android - yes please !You can deploy the backend and all necessary services conveniently and free of charge using Microsoft Azure tools - and success will come, the girls love you, the event was a success.

Having cooked here for 2 years, I can say about deep and sincere solidarity with what and how the MSP-community does in working with young people in Russia and the world. Behind the pseudo-events, the purpose of which was the distribution of gingerbread cookies and T-shirts. Now everything is real, for those who really need it, both listeners and organizers.
The mindset and activities of not all people are created for this community. Many students like to express dissatisfaction with the educational program of universities, teachers, the bulk of the studied technologies, often often not fully understanding what they are talking about. The MSP program in this context helps to bring a fresh stream into the educational process and realize those ideas that everyone considers good and necessary. Disputes over burning issues. Invaluable experience! This is an occasion to set up the necessary environment in the university buildings for constant and universal access to technologies, help in getting acquainted with new technologies, trends, free programs. DreamSpark, Azure subscriptions, Microsoft Research, and, and, and. Programs are multiplying and spreading.
MSP now come to get a boost of strength, motivation and energy to create life in the IT community, to revive interest in technology, to get personal development. I consider this activity indispensable and I strongly advise those who care about it to think about whether this is a chance, a sign that here and now you can already get up and do something real?

Perhaps my assessment is very one-sided, but I just do not see anything really alternative.
At the summit, all this was very productively discussed. Similar problems, similar solutions, similar ways of revitalizing - how are we and the Europeans, it turns out, are similar.

Minecraft Learning
Do good from evil,
because there is nothing more to do from
(c) R.P. Warren, “The whole royal army”

I, as it should be for an adult, don’t understand anything about Minecraft, a favorite game for children. I carefully watched South Park, even read a couple of reviews - in general, I have nothing to catch here.

Parents regularly face new challenges and barriers between the light of science, business, education and their beloved children. For a long time there was no period when the TV or game industry did not give birth to another obscure temptation, devouring all childhood time, energy and, most importantly, interest, with appetite.



The current clash between the school desk and Minecraft also looks extremely serious, as an example of which even demonstrations of new platforms are already starting to take place. Microsoft went a non-standard way and began to wrap Minecraft in a plus in all its senses. They seriously (and, in my opinion, completely sincerely) decided to build a whole educational program, which can be called Minecraft Learning.

One example of this approach was another event that I met in the framework of the already described Imagine Cup finals in Redmond. Microsoft decided to shake this topic on a large scale and set a task that was swung at the Guinness Book of Records. The bottom line is that they developed a simple platform, obvious and understandable, in which schoolchildren from all over the state could set some physical parameters of the environment provided to them. Well, simply put, to make a character (naturally, an unfamiliar Piñata) fly, bounce off walls, turn around, collect bonus points and, alas, die. It turns out a more or less tolerable game. Examples of starting stages here and here. To say that the kids who did something, had a real delight in the eyes of the fact that their actions lead to visible results - this is nothing to say. Along with the coding itself, naturally, there were prizes. Toys, T-shirts and even RPI devices.

Despite the skepticism from the beginning, in fact, everything turned out to be pretty cute, fun and interesting. As part of the tasks, such skills as working with the browser, customization of the desired functions, a creative touch and, for advanced ones, the implementation of more complex tasks according to the instructions a la MSDN, were developed. All together with a thousand or two of these different kids even managed to make a Guinness world record . Well, why not. As they say, everything is good, if only they would not do anything bad.

PS: if my impulses about the possibility of really doing something and changing you are somehow hooked, you can try yourself in this movement. Contrary to stereotypes, one MSP per city and even a university is not even enough. Here you will be provided with all contacts of organizers, speakers and sponsors close to your region. The converse is true. To do this, you just need to register on the gingerbread cookies and follow the updates, note your progress and, possibly, next year go down the beaten track to learn the depths of IT in Redmond itself. Good luck to you!