PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

SPARK

SPARK PROGRAM

Overview
Infosys Limited has conceptualized several unique programs aimed at evolving a model through which Infosys and academic institutions can partner for competitiveness to enhance the pool of highly capable talent for growth requirements in the Information Technology (IT) space. As a corporate citizen with a conscience, Infosys strives to cultivate a sustainable approach to conducting business. In our interactions with stakeholders within and beyond the sphere of business, we recognize that we shoulder a larger responsibility - to ourselves, the environment, our civic systems and the governments in the regions where we work. Spark is one such initiative by Infosys, which has touched the lives of more than 161,000 young people and nearly 10,000 members of faculty as of September, 2010. SPARK is an extraordinary volunteer-driven program that aims at raising the aspirations of students. This nation-wide program focuses on the advances information technology has made, Infosys role in the growth of IT and how students can learn from it. Spark was launched in August 2008 and today has over 4100 volunteers organization-wide, who spend their personal time on Saturdays to run the program.

learning environment. Through the Infosys success story, our team of volunteers demonstrates that it is possible to dream big and achieve. The students will leave the program with enhanced awareness of the Power of Information Technology and its role in their own career. Senior women leaders from Infosys participate to promote gender sensitivity as well as to sensitize girl students that there is no glass ceiling for accomplishment. Short team exercises provide the students an opportunity to identify their hidden talents while working in teams and renew their commitment to excel. Interaction with senior Infosys employees exposes students to the current trends in the IT industry.

SPARK at a glance
1. Typically one day event at Infosys Development Centre campus for students and accompanying faculty from schools, degree colleges and engineering colleges

2. Participation by invitation only. 3. Event agenda customized to target audience. Activities include presentations on ICT, campus tour, team project work and networking with alumni from same institutions. 4. Special batches for women, rural institutions and Government-run institutions. Travel to be arranged by participating institute. Lunch will be provided by Infosys. Ratio of faculty members to students 1:10.

SPARK
Infosys SPARK is one day exploratory program for students from different age groups and segments from high school to degree and engineering colleges of urban and suburban areas. Through this on-campus event conducted by volunteers, participating students assess their industry readiness and check their aspirations meter. This program brings students and faculty members from educational institutions to Infosys offices on an exclusive basis and exposes them to the best-in-class
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5.

6.

7. Program managed and conducted by Infosys volunteers.

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Rationale for Program

1. Raising aspirations of young students 2. Enhancing awareness about impact of IT in our daily lives

4. Nominated members of faculty need to be permanent faculty with 3 to 5 years of teaching experience.

3. Exposing students to a world class learning environment 4. Promoting gender sensitivity Process Overview Conducting a SPARK event involves key phases such as Event Planning, Event execution and Post-event Reporting. Planning phase involves identification of participating institutes, event communication, nomination of members of faculty and students by participating institute, facilities booking including classrooms/ equipment for visiting students/faculty, ordering giveaways, participant material and preparation of detailed agenda with several interactive and work group sessions. Event Execution phase involves program kick-off and hourly execution and tracking of agenda activities. Participants feedback is obtained for analysis and improvement decisions. Socializing, discussions, campus tour, meeting with Infoscions and networking are a part of the SPARK program. Post-Event Reporting phase involves analysis of feedback, and reporting.

Program Outcome
Students and Faculty members of participating institutes will: 1. Understand knowledge and skills related to challenges facing the IT industry 2. Become aware about usage of IT in various industries Experience facilitation & learning methods adopted by the IT industry.

3.

4. Experience the learning environment at Infosys 5. Learn about IT trends by interacting with practitioners. 6. Recognize gender sensitivity.

Program Governance
Infosys SPoC Infosys Development Centers (DC) will have a designated anchor to coordinate with associated institutes and internal units to roll out this program. Institute SPOC School/ College Single Point of Contact will be responsible for all interactions with Infosys. Volunteer Teams Volunteers from Infosys DC together with DC level core team will design and manage Spark events.

Pre-Requisites
1. High Schools, Degree and Engineering Colleges from urban and suburban areas in and around the host Development Centre (DC). 2. Institute needs to plan for travel arrangements and bear the cost.
3. Institute needs to include students and members of faculty from both genders.

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Reference Information
The SPARK program management team has developed various tools and artifacts for enhanced efficiency. These include:

5. Detailed SPARK program agenda and facilities checklist 6. Participant kit including giveaways, note pads, picture postcards of DCs
7. Event collateral like banners, roll-ups, podium banners and volunteer certificates 8. 9. Checklists for tracking and managing event Standard presentations about Infosys,

1. Spark portal and artifacts repository accessible from Infosys Intranet 2. Collated country-wide contact list of volunteers,
3. SPARK

institutes,

nominated
format/

members of faculty and students

Invitation Letter

Spark Briefing, videos, useful content from different Business Units within Infosys.

Participation confirmation & Tracker sheet

10. Participant

feedback

collection,

4. SPARK

Overview

presentation,

analysis and reporting formats

Program Announcement

Spark stats as on 30th September, 2010

Title Events Completed BLR BBSR CHN 230 77 160 HYD 298 MLR 56 CHD 108 MYS PUNE 157 131 JPR 7 TVM 39 Total 1263 161527 No. of Students 33625 Benefited No. of Women Students No. of Rural Students No. of Faculty Benefited No. of Infoscions Contributed 13714 20137 41259 5407 11402 15642 15734 1073 3534
(includes No. of women and rural students benefited)

4362

1881

2780

6628

792

1125

2145

1911

317

21941

6443

2530

3845

17030

2663

2534

3688

3412

70

840

43055 10586

2210

513

1008

3672

351

776

1106

707

46

197

(in addition to No. of students benefited)

688

398

324

681

152

144

945

714

109

4155

Continuing the Spark success story, three more programs have been added under the Spark umbrella in 2009-2010. A brief overview of these programs follows.

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Rural Reach Program (RRP)

Program Description
Infosys has implemented different Corporate Social Responsibility programs for inclusive growth in India. Encouraging rural children to pursue studies in science, mathematics and related subjects and become part of the IT revolution in the country is one such program. SPARKRural Reach Program (RRP) is one day program that aims to raise awareness of computers and introduce the power of IT to rural school children in India.

Program Outcome
Rural students participating in this one day program will be able to:
1. Demystify the myths they carry about computers by Touch-Feel-Use experience 2. Learn about the Applications of Computers (Tailored to age group and background) 3. Learn the importance of soft skills in todays competitive business environment.

The Rural Reach Program runs in parallel with the Infosys PC donation scheme, ensuring that schools where PCs have been donated or schools which are lined up for PC donation will benefit from the learning.

Target Audience
The target audience for RRP is students from rural Government schools studying in class 5 to 7 and located within 50 150 km radius of Infosys Development Centers (DCs).

Program Activities
1 Pre-Event Activities
RRP Team @ DC 1. School selection 2. School communication 3. Travel booking & Approval 4. Agenda finalization 5. PCs and supporting equipment to carry
6. Expense projection & signoff

During Event
RRP Team @ DC

Post-Event Activities
RRP Team @ DC

1. PC set-up at rural school 2. Briefing Principal and Teachers 3. Student Sessions delivery 4. Closing ceremony 5. Preparing for return journey

1. Feedback analysis 2. Reporting 3. Review with Sponsors

7. Volunteer briefing 8. Collateral to carry 9. Giveaways to carry 10. Journey plan & confirmation

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Program Highlights
1. Each of the Infosys DCs conducts one RRP per quarter. 2. The event is program managed by a group of volunteers who identify and communicate with school(s). 3. The team transports computers and giveaways to the school. 4. The event is held in one selected school (with participation from neighboring schools). 5. The team sets up PCs ensuring power back-up and other infrastructure required to prepare for the event. 6. Lead anchors will brief Principal and teachers before the start of the program. 7. The team members deliver sessions in the local language and interact with students. 8. All participating students receive a student kit consisting of Spark bag, note pad and pencil. 9. Volunteers demonstrate simple tasks using computers to small groups of students and answer their questions. Students have hands on sessions. 10. The team collects feedback and prepares a report.
11. Education & Research Admin team

Some of the topics include: 1. Parts of a computer and its care.

2. Starting up a computer and definitions of software and hardware. 3. The ability of a computer to manipulate data e.g. using application PAINT to draw pictures, copy, paste, rotate, scale etc. 4. Power of the internet and demonstration of e-mail. 5. Importance of cleanliness, safety at school and how science is making our lives better It is also suggested that we share with the school some picture charts depicting computer hardware, the role of software and databases to enhance recall value for students.

Program Collateral
1. Student kit 2. RRP Banner 3. RRP Presentations 4. RRP Briefing PPT for volunteers 5. RRP Checklist

consolidates nation-wide activity statistics.

Program Agenda
In order to ensure that students from the rural Government-run schools benefit from the day long program, the RRP agenda is designed to be simple yet effective. The examples chosen will communicate the power of the computer from the perspective of speed, repeatable tasks, accuracy of computation and

application of computers in their context.

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Catch Them Young (CTY)

Program Description
Spark Catch Them Young (CTY), a decade-long Infosys initiative, has been training high school students in the basics of Information Technology. Started in 1997, this two week long program aims to expose bright urban youth to the world of Information Technology by conducting a summer vacation workshop at Infosys campuses. It also raises the curiosity levels in young students to develop an interest in computer science and information technology.

Program Outcome
On completion of the CTY training program participating students will be able to:
1. Describe concepts relating to technologies like the Internet, software development and application of computers in businesses.
2. Work in teams on computers and software tools to develop a small software application.

3.

Describe an information system approach to solving simple automation problems.

Target Audience
The intended participants for CTY training are the high performing students who have completed 9th standard from local Government-run and privately-run high schools and are interested in computer programming.

Program Activities
1 Pre-Event Activities
CTY Team @ DC 1. School selection 2. School communication 3. Facilities booking 4. Agenda finalization 5. Technical Infrastructure Plan 6. Expense projection & signoff 7. Volunteer briefing 8. Educator briefing 9. Collateral to carry 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

During Event Activities

CTY Team @ DC Event confirmation Facilities & IT Infra audit CTY courseware install Food & Beverages Agenda/Project work control Transport facility Batch management Sessions delivery Special needs and escalations IT Infra support

Post-Event Activities
CTY Team @ DC

1. Feedback analysis 2. Reporting 3. Improvement plans 4. Documents updates 5. Review with Sponsors

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Program Highlights
1. Each of the Infosys DCs conducts a CTY program annually. 2. The event is program managed by a group of volunteers who identify and communicate with school(s). 3. The team selects approximately 40 students in each location through a selection test, typically held in December. 4. The event will be held in Infosys DCs during the summer vacation and the duration of the workshop is two weeks. 5. The team will set up classrooms with independent systems and required software tools. The team will also take care of logistics, food and transport arrangements for students for the duration of the workshop. 6. The team members deliver sessions, guide labs and hands on exercises and interact with students. 7. All participating students will receive a student kit consisting of Spark bag, note pad and pencil. 8. Students work in teams to develop a small application and demonstrate it to the audience. 9. The team collects feedback and prepares report. 10. Education & Research Admin team consolidates nation-wide activity statistics.

1. 2.

How is IT used in businesses? How do modern IT applications work?

3. How does IT help in your career? 4. How are IT applications developed with focus on the following: Problem solving in teams Software development tools Approach to application development Programming Data Management User Experience design Software testing 5. 6. Demonstration of tools and applications. Hands-on and team project work

Program Collateral
1. Student kit 2. CTY Banner 3. CTY Presentations, Lab assignments and Project statement CTY Briefing PPT for volunteers

4.

5. CTY Checklist

Program Agenda
In order to ensure that students from the high schools benefit from the 10 day long program, the CTY agenda is designed to focus on concepts relating to ICT and handson lab work. The examples chosen will communicate the application of information technology and how they could leverage the same to build their own career. Some of the topics that will be part of CTY training are:
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SPARK GURU

Program Description
As it is rightly said that A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself, a lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. We at Infosys believe that teachers who are continuously learning help shape multi-talented students. Spark GURU is an initiative which will help teachers to enrich their knowledge and enhance their teaching skills.
The aim of this program is to motivate teachers from rural areas (from Government-run and Government Aided schools), by bringing them into an informal environment, conduct sessions on introspection, teaching effectively, usage of computers in teaching and inculcation of habits of safety, security and hygiene.

Program Outcome
The core purpose of Speak Guru program is to:

1. Provide faculty with an opportunity to visit Infosys and observe the best in class learning environment. 2. Network with teachers from other institutions and introspect.
3. Discuss among peers and find solutions to common challenges faced in schools in areas of safety, security and hygiene.

4. Enhance awareness about the use of information Technology in teaching.

Program Activities
1. Event similar to Spark event at DCs with teachers as audience.
2. Senior Infoscions expose the participants to computer concepts and applications.

Target Audience
The intended participants for the Spark Guru program are school teachers from rural areas from Government-run and Government aided schools.

3. Senior

security

staff

conducts

sessions on safety and fire hazards. 4. Campus tour and demonstration of education facilities at DCs.
5. Facilitated brainstorming and networking opportunities for participants.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who can accompany students from invited institutions for the SPARK Program? A team of permanent members of faculty, working with the institute and having 3-5 years of experience may accompany the students of the institute for the Spark program.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

How many members of faculty should accompany the students? Typical ratio is 1 faculty per 10 students. What are the registration fees for SPARK Program? There is NO FEE payable to Infosys for attending SPARK. Is the SPARK Program conducted at Infosys facility?
Yes. Spark events will be held on Saturdays at the Infosys Development Centers, nationwide.

Can I as the institute SPoC nominate only male/female faculty and students?
No, please include both male and female students and members of faculty unless specified otherwise.

What is the duration of the SPARK Program? One Day (typically on Saturdays). Will the faculty/students receive a certificate for attending the program? No. Who will arrange my travel and accommodation? Travel and accommodation for the nominated members of faculty and students is the responsibility of the respective institute. Will my travel be reimbursed? No, Infosys will not reimburse travel costs for faculty or students. How can one share suggestions / feedback about the program? Your feedback and suggestions could be sent to Spark_Feedback@infosys.com.

9. 10.

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Participants are expected to make their own travel arrangements to and from the Infosys campus for the various Spark programs. Infosys shall have no further liability thereof with respect to such travel.

2.

Participants are expected to maintain decorum, and follow all applicable rules and regulations, especially with regard to safety and security of Infosys, while at the campus. Participants are required to obtain necessary permission from their parents to visit Infosys campus.

3.
4.

Participants are not allowed to bring any magnetic media, CDs, pen drives, laptops while visiting under the Spark program.
Participants shall be liable for any loss or damage suffered by Infosys and attributable to the participant.

5.
6.

Participation in the Spark programs by the participant is not an endorsement by Infosys of either the participant or the participants school or college.
Neither the participant nor the participants institution shall get any additional remuneration or any special preference with respect to recruitment into Infosys, by virtue of participation in this program.

7.

Infosys shall have no liability arising out of conducting of the programs or the participants participation in the same.

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Program Contacts
Infosys Development Centre Bangalore Infosys Point of Contact Anoop Singh Trupthi A Narayan Swati Jain Bhubaneswar Bhupesh Deka Nirmalya Chaudhuri Sumesh Khatua Chandigarh Manisha Neeraj Garg Anuradha Verma Renu Vadhvani Chennai Hyderabad Veerappaji Bittanakurike Shivanna Abhishek V Paul Srinagesh Chatarajupalli Sudheer Reddy K. Bhanu Prasad TV Mangalore Mysore Pune Trivandrum Rithesh Kumble Vani K N Soudamini Patil Swapnil Diwakar Pande Hari S. Email ID Anoop_Singh@infosys.com TrupthiA_Narayan@infosys.com Swati_Jain06@infosys.com Bhupesh_Deka@infosys.com Nirmalya_Chaudhuri@infosys.com Sumesh_Khatua@infosys.com Manisha@infosys.com Neeraj_Garg02@infosys.com Anuradha_thakur@infosys.com Renu_Vadhvani@infosys.com Veerappaji_S@infosys.com Abhishek_Paul01@infosys.com Srinagesh_C@infosys.com SudheerReddy_K@infosys.com Venkata_Tolety@infosys.com Rithesh_Kumble@infosys.com Vani_kn@infosys.com Soudamini_Patil@infosys.com Swapnil_Pande01@infosys.com Hari_S@infosys.com

http://campusconnect.infosys.com/spark