Learn to design ‘Mobile Apps’ from IIT Madras
Chennai: India produces lakhs of engineers every year who aspire to enter the tech industry. However, there’s a skill gap between market needs and what students have learnt.
In this difficult job environment, with massive layoffs predicted in the near future, both working professionals and college students are looking for ways to upgrade their skill sets and learn the latest technologies.
Introduction to Modern Application Development or IMAD, is a free MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) – offered by Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Hasura, a core technology start-up – which aims to bridge this skill gap.
IIT Madras is offering an opportunity to all those with basic programming skills to learn App development in eight weeks. The Institute will be starting the free online course IMAD from 24th July 2017.
Through this course, one can learn to develop mobile applications, popularly known as ‘Apps’ which have become an integral part of our everyday lives.
More than 83,000 students have registered for the course so far, making it India’s largest MOOC. They have come up with more than 6,700 apps. Around 430 candidates have landed internships with start-ups. Students who successfully complete the course get a certificate from IIT Madras.
The top students from IMAD are also eligible for product development internships at Hasura. These internships give the students an opportunity to hone their app development skills in the real world and provide much needed exposure to industry.
The course will be broken into 5 modules that will be covered over 8 weeks:
1. Introduction to the Internet, and its common network protocols
2. Build a basic but complete web application
3. Learn the how and why of modelling data for your application using databases
4. Learn about performance and how to ensure security for an application
5. Learn how to build your own mobile application
Registration for the course has begun and can be done by visiting www.imad.tech . The website also has resources required to learn or to brush up required programming basics.
Besides being free for everyone, anywhere, the course strives for the right balance between theory and practice by focusing on building an application quickly while also ensuring that it never breaks.
A 20-minute course video will be available online on YouTube and can be viewed anytime. One can take the course even from the comfort of their home. The course will have graded assignments, and a final test to help one remain focused through the course.
The course will be conducted by Prof. Gaurav Raina, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and also a visiting research fellow in the Statistical Laboratory at Cambridge University along with Mr. Tanmai Gopal, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Hasura. He is also an alumnus of IIT Madras from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Speaking about the course, Prof. Gaurav Raina, said: “It’s a great time to be working in technology, but one really needs to have relevant skills. If you are a student, a working professional, or someone looking to work in technology, the IMAD course aims to prepare you for the rapidly changing technology sector.”
This course will help in developing skills crucial to someone wanting to develop apps and get started on their own. It is aimed at equipping one with the ingredients to get started with an idea. There is also the tangible benefit of internships at some of the top tech start-ups/companies in India.
In addition, an examination (optional) will be conducted on completion of the course and on successfully clearing it, one can obtain a certification from IIT Madras.
A few statistics about the course so far
Total number of registered students – 83,190
Number of internships offered – 430
Student Profiles:
● College Students – 64% (more than 53,000 registrations)
● Working Professionals – 15% (more than 15,000 registrations)
● Faculty and Educators – 2% (more than 1800 registrations)
Demographic distribution of students:
● 13-20 years age group – 35%
● 20-40 years age group – 58%
● 40+ years age group – 6%
Geographic distribution of students
India – 98% of all students
Outside India (20 countries) – 1500 registrations