Datacom invests in Kiwi students

Datacom has announced the winner of this year's Datacom Imagine Cup Scholarship is Rhea Babbar, a University of Auckland student.

As the winner, Babbar will have the opportunity to test her skills and gain practical, real-world experience within Datacom in New Zealand.

More specifically, Babbar will have a paid six month internship working in Datacom's Microsoft Solutions team in Auckland.

"We've been running this competition for several years now and this year, as always, we are impressed by the calibre of the applicants," says Greg Davidson, Datacom NZ CEO.

"Microsoft Imagine Cup is a great initiative that lets students realise their creative ideas and encourages world-class IT talent," he says.

Babbar is currently studying a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Auckland.

Babbar's Imagine Cup team produced an app called aFOODable. The solution aims to create a three-way connection between donors, charities and supermarkets.

Donors can donate food while they are grocery shopping, and charities can reduce the amount of money they spend on buying food items.

"I am extremely thankful to Datacom for giving me this opportunity and very excited to be part of the company," says Babbar.

Datacom has offered this scholarship for the last five years. Every year the company hires a large number of graduating students into permanent roles, with around 70 graduates joining the software division alone in the past two years.