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Italy-based computer-aided design firm, think3, is planning to increase its headcount in the country by about two-fold to over 200 by next year. "We will increase our presence here to over 200 people in the next one year from currently 120 " think3 Director (International Sales) Tom Davis said recently. The company would also set up a customer support centre in Pune in the next couple of months with an initial employee strength of 30-40 professionals, he said. Asked about the size of Indian computer-aided design market, Davis said: "The total size of the Indian market is about 75 million dollar and would grow by 20 per cent. The company is expecting to grab 10-15 per cent in next 2-3 years." The company would target small and medium enterprises (SMEs) here and is planning to develop products in India for its global sale, he added. "Think3 has identified South Asia, specifically India, as its next frontier for expansion and is looking for rapid growth in this region. There has been a significant spurt in manufacturing and industrial activity in this zone over the past 3-5 years, and undoubtedly, countries in this region are expected to dominate manufacturing in the years to come," Davis added. Over 60,000 students register for Great Mind Challenge More than 60,000 students have registered themselves for the second edition of the country-wide contest by software major IBM to develop "real life solutions" using the company's open source software. 'The Great Mind Challenge-2007' contest, conducted as part of IBM's Academic Initiative Programme, has 62,456 participants from 2,068 colleges across the country. "This is more than a 100 per cent increase as far as number of participants are concerned, as the first edition of the contest last year was taken part by 21,800 engineering and MCA students from 745 educational institutions," IBM vice-president (Marketing & SWG Ecosystem) Anil Menon said in Chennai recently. Apart from the students, 5,786 faculty members also have registered for the contest. They, along with the 'e-mentors' of IBM, will help out the students in their projects, he said. After the three-month-long registration process which ended last month, the contestants are being formed into teams comprising 10 students, a faculty member and an e-mentor. These groups will be given 'project scenarios' wherein they expected to use their expertise to find a solution using open standards-based IT tools. "The students get a feel of the real life technological application. This will make them more atune to the market preferences," said Menon. "Moreover, this would encourage them to work together and excel as a team", he added. The projects undergo continuous evaluation from August to December and the awards are given away by January or February, 2008. The innovative solutions would be shared with government agencies, industry bodies and academia.
— PTI
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