Full of anticipation, we arrived at the Bootcamp last September, eager to find out what we would be able to accomplish to share our passion for technology and software. After a dozen thrilling presentations from Microsoft speakers over many topics, ranging from an inside look at the development of Office to XNA game development on Xbox, we soon realised that we would have many opportunities to do just that. As part of the presentation skills training we received during those two fun-packed days, we were challenged to come up, in teams, with a short sketch to answer the question I started with… performances ranged from amusing acts of ‘I’m a Mac… and I’m and MSP’ to hilarious sales-pitches of the ‘MSP 2008 Ultimate Professional edition’. A fun start to the programme!
Throughout the academic year, MSPs are encouraged to undertake several activities. One of the highlights of the year was the Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s student competition. As an MSP I chose to run events on campus to promote the competition to fellow students, and many of us also took part in the competition, with two MSPs winning the UK finals!
Throughout the year, we were also fortunate to experience great Microsoft product launches and occasions which we were able to share with friends at our universities. These included Visual Studio 2008, the Ultimate Steal promotion and of course DreamSpark, which offers lots of free Microsoft software for students. As an MSP I was lucky in that I even got to help test and fix the latter with Microsoft engineers in Redmond while still in its top-secret phase, months before its public announcement! And of course, for taking part…. lots of prizes were up for grabs, like the fabulous Xbox 360 that I now have in my room J These prizes (phones, games, computers…..!) are a fun part of the MSP programme, and encourage a spirit of friendly competition between MSPs: can you convince the most friends to take part in the Imagine Cup? Can you develop the best Silverlight calendar? And so many other opportunities! And of course, one of the biggest advantages for MSPs is the amazing year-long MSDN subscription which we all received!
One of the most exciting moments of my year as an MSP, was the event which I hosted in March. Entitled ‘User Interface Design at Microsoft’, I gave a talk to over 60 students in my department. It was a good opportunity to apply presentation skills we had developed at the September ‘bootcamp’. With my MSDN subscription, I was able to grab copies of many previous versions of Office to use as a case study of User Interface evolution in software, which was a welcome illustration! Also, as MSP, I was able to get lots of great information to put the presentation together from key Microsoft people in-the-know, which helped make it all very interesting (I hope!). Of course… the free pizza provided from Microsoft probably helped too!
Throughout the year, we were also invited to take part in several to engage with fascinating Microsoft employees, especially for MSPs, that covered topics such as Popfly, Silverlight and DeepZoom, which gave us lots of ideas for talks and presentations that we could possibly present at our universities! In addition, as MSPs we got to help organize the Microsoft Inspiration Tour, a great success in many universities throughout the country, and more recently I was also given the fabulous chance to feedback to Microsoft engineers on what the needs and thoughts of students are on cloud-computing and Software plus services!
Another fun activity I did, was writing an article for our student-produced Science magazine on campus, about Microsoft Surface. Being an engineering student I was able to incorporate lots of technical details, which helped make the article fun to read for over 1000 students!
For the activities I conducted at my university over the year, I was extremely lucky to be awarded a MSP Star Award, one of the big prizes at the end of the programme. So, I’ll be flying off to Seattle to visit Microsoft HQ and take part in a big Microsoft student event in September! I can’t wait! Of course, I’ve only been able to do all these activities on campus, some of which I’ve just shared with you, thanks to the tremendous support we get from Microsoft as MSPs to share our passion with other students. As a returning MSP, I think it’s going to be another great year for the programme, and I really look forward to sharing my experiences and ideas with other MSPs, especially at the ‘Launch’ in Reading in September or through the dedicated MSP forum, which allows us to be in touch with MSPs from all over the world, discussing such a wide range of topics!
So, now that you’ve gained a flavour of what it’s like being an MSP, get ready to apply for the 2009-2010 academic year, and in the mean time look out for and enjoy the activities run by your MSP at your university over the next few months! It’s going to be a fun and exciting year!
