It hasn't been long since Microsoft and Khulna University signed the "MSDN Academic Alliance" to ensure better learning facilities for the students of the university. Under the alliance, students from Khulna University would get exclusive access to hundreds of applications, platforms and development tools from the software giant, Microsoft. The alliance aimed at making students aware of the cutting edge technologies while allowing them to play with all the latest tools and toys. Following the alliance, "MSDN Academic Alliance Installation Fiesta" was held in KU from the 15th to the 22nd September, 2011. The event was houseful weeklong. Students stood in line to get themselves registered and take the advantage of the MSDN subscription they got in return.
The "Installation Fiesta" was held in the seminar library of CSE Discipline, a prominent place with mass access. We, the Microsoft Student Partners in the institute started planning and making necessary arrangements from at least one week ago. We re-arranged the the seminar library to make it more spacious and accommodating than before. We also started viral promotion of the upcoming event. CSE Discipline kindly dedicated a PC for the registration purposes. Microsoft Bangladesh sent us the HDD with local copies of the software long before the event. We reorganized the contents on it for better navigation and even easier collection of the software. When we received the event banners, we hoisted it in the key places in the campus. These banners fueled the promotional activities to a new extent.
Finally came 15th September. The announced time for opening was 2.30PM but we noticed a crowd started growing from 2PM. Right on time, we opened the registration booth for all. Students were instructed to form a queue. They had to bring a photocopy of their student ID card for verification purposes. They entered one by one. MSPs checked the ID card and allowed access to the registration terminal. The students submitted their personal details alongside a valid and active Windows Live ID. MSPs were always there to provide any kind of assistance to the registrants. The participants wore an excited look on their faces and the atmosphere had an air of celebration. Students stood in line, chatted, joked, laughed, registered and enjoyed the event to their hearts content.
.
. 
Faculty members and the staff also got registered in the weeklong event. We arranged a priority queue for the respected faculty members considering their busy schedules. They also looked satisfied about the event.
The participants expressed their satisfaction and excitement with the event. Aminul Islam Imon, a student of CSE Discipline said - "Microsoft definitely has built the industry leading tools but it was not affordable for me in the past. I am extremely happy that I can now have a genuine copy of Visual Studio 2010 Professional - free of charge! It's just amazing!". Another student, Ahsan Parvez said - "I would like to thank Microsoft for providing the XNA toys! I just can't help start working on a game of mine". The faculty members also expressed their gratitude towards Microsoft for providing the tools and teaching materials.
.
.
The event ran from the 15th to the 22nd September, non stop. The MSPs worked really hard to handle the crowd and avail their best possible support for the participants. On this happy occasion, I would like to thank them for all the hard work and efforts they gave. Special thanks to our MSP, Bilash for taking snaps of the event. I would also like to thank the students who made the event successful by attending. I am grateful to you, everyone for making the event a success. I express my personal gratitude to Omi Azad from Microsoft Bangladesh for the constant reviews, guidance and recommendations. Thank you Microsoft, you rock!
Abu Ashraf Masnun,
Campus Lead, Microsoft Student Partners
Khulna University.