The ESKAY Factor: pages from an open book

The JavaFX workshop was organized successfully as a part of Pragyan '09, The International Techno-management Festival of NIT Trichy. . It was a day long workshop organized by Sun Microsystems. The workshop was aimed at teaching how to use JavaFX software for developing rich Internet applications. The engineers explained how to use the technology to create animations and effects, add multimedia to applications, and incorporate Java software into JavaFX applications.

The response was really overwhelming. More than 500 students had registered for the workshop, and many of them were students from various colleges across the state. 150 registrants were shortlisted to attend the workshop, out of which 50 were from outside colleges. The workshop was conducted in the annexe lab in the Octagon Computer Center.

The session started with Kumar Abhishek giving a talk on Open Source technologies. He explained about how the world is shifting from the 'information age' to the age of 'participation'. He cited examples to explain why the computing world is slowly moving towards open source.

We had three engineers from Sun, Mr. Elancheran, Mr. Srinivas and M. Praveen. The next few sessions were handled by them. A basic introduction to the world of JavaFX was given initially to the students. Various features of the technology was explained. Brief demonstrations were given to show how JavaFX functions as an expressive rich client platform for creating and delivering rich Internet experiences across all the screens of our life.

The next session was regarding the JavaFX Script, the scripting language used in creating JavaFX applications. Sample programs were provided to explain how the language is an object oriented, integrating easily with Java with automatic data binding. The demo programs explored a wide range of features of the language.

The next session was the hands-on session where the students tried their own code and came up with really innovative applications.

Occasionally, questions were asked and prozes were awarded to the students who answered the questions. T shirts, pens and keychains were presented to the students. The best application received a Transcend Flash drive as an award.

Members of the Sun Club helped in organizing the workshop and ensuring that the things went on smoothly. The students feedback also was good. Certificates were given away to the students who attended the workshop.

Keeping in mind the success of this workshop, many more workshops on open source technologies are being planned in NIT Trichy. It is always a great experience to organize a huge event successfully.