My alma mater, PESIT (in Bangalore), has an interesting proposition for startups – mentor students and get office space in return.
The background is that they are working to improve the quality of education in the IS / CS departments. One of the ideas they identified was to work with in-industry programmers who can answer questions from students on the innumerable topics out there, from a practical point of view. Of course, GIYF would be your first response, but students who are just starting out need face time and guidance to make them comfortable, even if the answer is going to be “Check this URL.” Some of the kinds of questions you can expect are:
- How can I use the vi editor to edit my file?
- What is CouchDB?
- How can I compile my program better than typing javac myProgram.java?
- How can I use the Facebook OpenGraph API?
The only way for PESIT to make this happen is to get motivated in-industry programmers to spare some of their time to mentor students. And what better way is there than offer office space to startups who can work out of the PESIT campus and mentor students face-to-face right there!
Startups can also get access to clusters of hundreds of machines in the computer labs and even get interested students to work as interns with you!
If this sounds like an opportunity for your startup and an opportunity for you to improve the quality of CS education, then go ahead and write to Mr. Harihara Vinayakaram (visiting lecturer at PESIT) at nextgenerationbangalore [at] gmail.com with “Startup Student Mentor” in the subject line.