CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - November 18, 2010) - Forty-seven of the future thought leaders of the technology industry have been identified, through the ITA Fall Challenge presented by BigMachines. The responsibility lies on the local industry to keep them in Illinois.
"These students represent the future leaders of technology -- educated here at our world-class Illinois universities," said Fred Hoch, President, ITA. "The technology industry of Illinois needs to keep these bright minds at home and continue to nurture their talent. On behalf of our member companies, we are committed to doing just that."
"Allscripts is thrilled to partner with the Illinois Technology Association to support and promote this important endeavor that is truly a pioneering effort of the technology industry and the Chicago community," said Celia Harper-Guerra, Senior VP of Talent Acquisition and Development for Allscripts. "As a leader in the Healthcare Information Technology industry, it is imperative we seek sharp, innovative, technology-focused individuals to bring fresh perspectives and new ideas as we continue to develop and implement our strategies across the business. We are excited at this opportunity to engage with such a high caliber class of talent as we begin to identify future talent to join our high performance, results driven organization."
The finalists from schools visited are:
University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
Niraj Chaubal
Kuo Hao Chen
Adarsh Hasija
Zu Huang
Rahul Jain
Brian Mishkip
Michael Mlsna
Thien Nguyen
Dylan Nugent
Ted Paiyga
Anyali Saudhae
Alek Storm
Vivek Thyagarajan
Tianyi Wang
Illinois Institute of Technology
Arun Basil
Unsuk Heo
Haeit Shah
Krishnaprasad Shetty
Jesse Taylor
Praneeth Tota
University of Chicago
Michael Lusigna
Anil Vaitla
Tony Tin
Northern Illinois University
Anthony Baldocci
Kevin Deichl
Sam Fuqua
Jared Lash
Aleksey Levy
Nicholas Nagrodski
Domalapalli Santosh Kumar
Zhihao Yuan
DePaul University
Steve Bloemer
Juan Cascajares
University of Illinois at Chicago
Jesus Alonso
Riccardo Cattaneo
Christine Costales
Sean Deitz
Gurudev Devanla
B.M. Mainul Hossain
Islam Ismailove
Matthew Ramir
Archana Sethuraman
Venkatakumar Srinivasan
Bharath Kumara Subramanian
Paul Varkey
Guan Wang
"When I started Centro, I chose Chicago as our home base because of its dynamic technology and business communities, and we have remained committed to helping enrich that environment," said Shawn Riegsecker, Founder and President, Centro. "An event like this, in addition to being a lot of fun, demonstrates the wealth of talent Chicago has at its fingertips. As the technology ecosystem evolves, companies will be vying for that talent and we're so excited to be a part of the ITA challenge."
The ITA Fall Challenge culminates on November 19, 2010 at TechNexus, with the Final Challenge. These finalists will address real life technology issues faced by local technology companies. The highest scoring student will receive a $5,000 cash prize, and the opportunity to work for a sponsoring company.
"We see many smart, talented individuals graduating from Illinois universities," said Godard Abel, CEO and Co-founder, BigMachines. "As a fast-growing technology company based in the Chicago area, we are always looking for the best and brightest individuals to help us innovate and expand. We are proud to be the Presenting Sponsor of the ITA Fall Challenge and support the efforts of the ITA in keeping these talented students in Illinois."
The ITA thanks BigMachines, presenting sponsor, Allscripts, GrubHub.com, Centro, and Model Metrics, supporting sponsors, and participating sponsor companies including Alterian, Applied Systems, Authentify, Cleversafe, Corptax, EDL Consulting, Forte CG, Google, Leapfrog Online, Lextech, MBX Systems, NAVTEQ, Nokia, Pointbridge, Restaurant.com, SmartSignal, SPR Companies, Vail Systems, and Vibes Media. We also thank the Final Challenge sponsors, IBM Corporation, School2Life.com, and the NIU Computer Science Alumni Club (CSAC).
The winner of the ITA Fall Challenge Presented by BigMachines will be announced Friday afternoon on Twitter through @ITABUZZ. Look for the announcement around 3pm!
For more information about the Fall Challenge, visit http://illinoistech.org/page.aspx/Fall_Challenge.
About the ITA
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is a driving force behind the growth of Illinois' vibrant technology industry. We are relentless in championing the development and application of technology, from start-up companies to industry leaders, leveraging the transformative nature of technology to revolutionize industries. ITA uniquely capitalizes peer-to-peer collaboration, networking, and access to experts across the breadth of business to cultivate the Illinois technology industry. The unique and powerful integration of these valuable and experienced resources differentiates the ITA as a source of accelerated growth for the technology industry of Illinois. For more information about ITA, please visit www.illinoistech.org
About BigMachines
BigMachines is the global leader in enabling B2B sales, helping companies sell more and sell faster. BigMachines' award-winning on-demand configurator, pricing and quoting, proposal generator, and B2B eCommerce software solutions empower sales across customers' channels by streamlining their sales processes from opportunity to order. Using BigMachines software, sales teams and channels can quickly configure products, generate quotes and proposals, manage complex pricing, generate legal contracts, and manage orders. BigMachines offers extensive reporting capabilities and easily integrates to leading CRM and ERP systems, including those from salesforce.com, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP. BigMachines' rapidly growing customer base includes global leaders such as Kodak's GCG, Siemens, Ingersoll Rand, and NTT Communications, as well as innovative growth companies such as Acme Packet and Voltaire. For more information, visit www.bigmachines.com.
Contact Information:
Contacts:
Dorothy Radke
Marketing & Communications
ITA
+1.312.924.1044
dradke@illinoistech.org