How Unisys spots and rewards innovation talent with Cloud 20/20

Teams from three engineering colleges crack the Unisys challenge. Here’s how Unisys spots innovation talent to support its global product engineering.

Strong linkages between the industry and the academia are a proven way to spur innovation. Project contests, organized and supported by tech companies, help unleash creativity and innovative thinking amongst students in applying disruptive technologies to solve challenging problems.

Unisys India recently announced the winners of Cloud 20/20, the sixth edition of one of India’s largest online technical project contests. Three projects represented by IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad; Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry; and V R Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada respectively were awarded in the final round.

More than 1,400 teams from colleges across India participated in Cloud 20/20 Version 6.0. Unisys received about 530 project submissions, up more than 34 percent from the prior year’s competition, the company claims.

“It is imperative that we get the next generation, who have grown up with these technologies, involved in finding creative solutions to these challenges and that’s precisely what Cloud 20/20 aims to do,” said LNV Samy, VP, Engineering, Global Technology Centers – India, China, and Australia, Technology Products Group, Unisys.

LNV Samy, VP, Engineering, Global Technology Centers – India, China, and Australia, Technology Products Group, Unisys

Working in teams of four, supported by project guides from Unisys and their institute, the contestants showcased projects on application development for the cloud; security issues in the cloud; big data in the cloud; cloud based testing; system programming; and potential future technologies, open source technologies and disruptive technologies. In addition, this year, Unisys India introduced a new category called ‘Targeted Innovation Projects,’ wherein students had the opportunity to work on project ideas proposed by the Unisys Technical team on topics of relevance to Cloud 20/20.

“Unisys has always been committed to investing in supporting the next generation of innovators. This year’s winners prove that with the right education, resources, and guidance, young people can indeed use their creativity and ingenuity to solve some of our most critical technology challenges,” said Bob Supnik, VP, Technology Products Group, Unisys.

Bob Supnik, VP, Technology Products Group, Unisys

Based on requirement, the students from winner project groups would also be considered for employment by Unisys in India after they graduate.

Leveraging India

Like most other technology companies, Unisys too has offshore product engineering centers in India that leverages engineering talent based in India. Contests such as Cloud 20/20 help in gaining access to good talent. Technology engineering in Bangalore is the largest of Unisys’ worldwide product engineering sites. Unisys India has created approximately 20% of all patents filed annually by Unisys.

Said Bob, “We have centers of excellence based in India that specialize in virtualization, real-time infrastructure, mobility, Microsoft technologies, services management platform, enterprise command center, application packaging, unified messaging and database management.”

The India center plays an important role in the biometric solutions Unisys provides globally such as the creation of the building blocks for Identity and Credentialing (ID&C) solutions and delivering several international ID&C projects involving biometrics – e.g., Angola national ID project, Mexico national ID project, Australian Department of Immigration & Citizenship (DIAC), and Queensland smartcard drivers’ license. In India too Unisys is focused mainly on ID&C and surveillance projects for the government and transportation sectors.

One of Unisys’ biggest strength areas is aviation. The company was the master systems integrator for the Terminal 3 project of Delhi International Airport (DIAL), the largest project taken up in the history of Indian aviation. Unisys also tested the core airport operational systems implemented at Mumbai International Airport’s (MIAL) new Terminal 2. Unisys has also worked with Air India for more than 30 years to provide services and technology.