It is always an honor and great experience when we participate in a Microsoft event. Recently my colleague, Prasad and I from our office got an opportunity to attend an open-hack event organized by Microsoft. It was scheduled at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Mumbai. I would describe the experience as an excellent opportunity to interact with professionals working with or at Microsoft who are also contributors to Azure services. Both of us got an opportunity to explore different AZURE IOT/AI and storage related services and an opportunity to work with people from different organizations.
The three-day event was packed with different activities, which included team building activities, treasure hunt, different kinds of coding tasks related to an IOT, data storage, etc. Initially, we were absolutely unknown to each other, but a Microsoft appointed mentor established such an easy rapport that I got comfortable with my new team. Our teams were made up of members from different domains, which shed new light on how to accept and work alongside a diverse group of people. Since I have some experience with IOT and some of its related services, I was chosen as our team leader, wherein I had to decide and elaborate the process flow. I also was responsible for assigning tasks to every individual and help them through it.
The event was basically divided into three phases wherein the first phase consisted of an introduction to AZURE IOT services. This was followed by some coding hacks wherein we were given some problem statements and had to propose a cloud-based solution. The last phase included talks by SMEs about the new Azure offerings.
On the very first day, we were introduced to Azure IOT hub which was followed by one problem statement. It was a roller coaster. We had to create a simulated device over the cloud and send simulated data over the cloud through simulated sensors. (which were supposed to have connected to roller coaster). The second day was dedicated to event hub utilization and related problem statement, while on the third day the data collected so far over the cloud was to be visualized using Power BI. And this was something new to me.
The event was adjourned with a prize distribution and some special appreciation announcements. This was followed by a photoshoot goodies giveaways. Above all, it was an awesome experiment with insightful takes on various aspects of IOT and data handling.
