Workshop - Mahendra Engineering College on 2nd & 3rd March 2009

Mahendra College of Engineering is situated on Salem - Tiruchengode main road 27 KMs from Salem and 33 KMs from Erode which are main Railway Junction connecting all important cities of India.
After our successful Developer Conference in their campus last year, they invited us again for conducting a Workshop .
This time we planned for 2 days workshop with 1 day completely dedicated for Hands on Lab.
@1st day:
There were 200 attendees on the 1st day.The attendees for the 1st day were from:
• 2nd & 3rd ECE
• 2nd & 3rd IT
• 2nd & 3rd CSE

We started with Microsoft Academic Initiative which included Microsoft Student Partner Program, CBEUG - Coimbatore User Group Channel 8, MSDN AA, Live@Edu, Dreamspark, Ineta,Imagine Cup 09, Faculty Connection and Student2Business.
Immediately after that the most eagerly awaited session, Windows 7 was taken. Where the students were amazed by the cool features. Then we explained them how to install and run different operating system virtually using Virtual PC 2007.We were provided with Internet facilities which helped us in showing demos.
After a 1 hr break, we started with technical sessions which included VS2008 with demos for explaining collaboration and productivity feature in VS 2008, Live Mesh with a demo synchronizing 2 laps and then popfly with a Demo on Mash Up. At last we ended day one with explaining about Mozilla and Blogging.
@2nd day:
For the 2nd day Hands on Lab, only 90 of the 200 students were selected as we could arrange only two labs with 45 computers each. So in LAB 1 we installed SQL SERVER 2008 (Trial), VS 2008 Express Edition and in LAB 2 we installed Small Basics, Expression Blend & VS 2008 Express Edition.
The attendees for the 2nd day were also from:
• 2nd & 3rd ECE
• 2nd & 3rd IT
• 2nd & 3rd CSE
As it was hands on lab we started of early, 8:30 AM itself. For the 1st 45 students we helped them in having a live working experience on creating a website with zero code using asp.net in VS 2008. They learnt how useful it is to create a master page and develop a website. They also learnt how easy to create a database in SQLSERVER 2008 and connect it to the website.
Simultaneously the other set of 45 students learnt how easy it is to write a program in Small Basics when compared to that of writing program in TURBO C++. They also learnt to design a media player using Silverlight Technology in Expression Blend and then easily code in VS 2008.
After the break in the second half it was vice versa.
The students really had a lot of fun, learning by actually working on them.