Information Technology

November 2, 2006
Abishek Kumarasubramanian: Winner of Microsoft’s “Code 4 Bill” contest

Sufia Tippu

BANGALORE -- Over twenty thousand aspiring students from undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD streams contested for the latest contest "Code 4 Bill," a nation-wide talent hunt launched by the Microsoft to identify India's best student technologists. Only one, 20-year old Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Chennai, who had recently finished his bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from the IIT, Madras emerged the winner. He will go to Redmond and undergo one year internship with Bill Gates’s technical assistant's team, which comprises the world's best technologists who formulate and drive Microsoft's technical strategy. Incidentally, he had also narrowly missed coming out first in the Google Code for Jam. Now, based in Bangalore and interning at the Microsoft R&D center, he is a happy young man – with world of software research stretching out far and wide in front of him. In an interview with Convergence Plus, Abishek talks about his past, his dreams and his future.

Convergence Plus: Did you always dream of becoming a techie and making a mark in the IT field?

Abishek Kumarasubramanian: Not really. I wanted to be a doctor. You see, Dad is an officer at the Indian Bank and my mother takes care of our home -- getting into medicine was the natural choice at that time. But it so happened that I was able to get into IIT, Madras. And, I thought at that time, electrical engineering was an interesting branch to get into because the IT sector was not doing too well doldrums then – that’s how I decided on electrical engineering rather than any other computing course.

CP: Were you are a keen participant in collegiate contests?

AK: Yes, I loved to take part in college contests. These were all smaller versions of the programming contests that Microsoft or Google or AOL come up with. It has always been fun to take part in these contests –where your analytical as well as mathematical skills are tested.

CP: Earlier there was the Google Code Jam contest 2006 --Google's second annual computer programming competition in India in which you had come out second. Can you tell us something about that?

AK: The Google Code Jam is a celebration of the art of computer science, and sends out signals to programmers everywhere about the value Google places on excellent coding.

This is the second year of the Google India Code Jam, produced in conjunction with TopCoder, the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development. Ardian Kristanto Poernomo of Nanyang Technology University in Singapore was announced the winner of the prize of Rs.1.22 lakh. He scored 977.88 points. Ardian competed against thousands of registrants from around the world and incidentally, he was also the winner of the Google India Code Jam 2005.

I came in second with a score of 977.85 points while Shreevatsa Rajagopalan came in third with a score of 635.89 points. The second to fifth prize winners each took home Rs 56, 000, sixth to tenth Rs. 44, 200, eleventh to twentieth Rs.33, 200, twenty first to twenty fifth Rs. 22,200 and twenty sixth to fiftieth Rs. 18,000. All the 50 winners took home an iPod Nano along with the cash prizes, also.

CP: What were you asked to do in the “Code 4 Bill” contest?

AK: The entire contest was spread over a period of seven months where over 20,000 students registered for the contest. It included three online technical challenges, and two rounds of one-to-one interviews. There were puzzles to be solved as well as lots of quirky maths to be unraveled. All 20 of us who were selected also interned with Microsoft India for a period of two months. There were analytical and skill tests and personal interviews with the MS' technical teams. My project involved identifying a snippet of code in a target program. Besides numerous applications ranging from virus checking to software watermarking, the most challenging part was the fact that we didn’t have access to the source code but had to work only with the binaries.

CP: What was your initial reaction when you came to know that you were the winner?

AK: I was too excited for words. Participating in this contest by itself was an exhilarating experience - the competition had been tough and challenging and had provided me an insight into cutting edge product development and innovation. First there was a shock, then there was a surprised kind of a feeling and it took sometime to completely believe that I have been chosen to work with Bill Gates himself. That is something that happens once in a lifetime and am really excited about it.

CP: What are the kind of things that interest you?

AK: I like reading Indian and Western philosophies and my favourite is Albert Camus – French author and philosopher. Also love traveling to hill stations and I love waterfalls.

CP: And, your plans for the future?

AK: Two years down the line, I think I would be doing my Ph.D and then I would get into research.