Bharti of Maharaja Surajmal Institute is TechGig’s Geek Goddess 2017

The recently concluded TechGig Geek Goddess event proved without a doubt that given the opportunity, top coders can appear from any background and are not are not exclusive to the top 10 institutes in India.

Ms. Bharti from Maharaja Surajmal Institute, not only topped the Geek Goddess leader board beating hundreds of IIT and NIT graduates, but did it in style by completing all her coding challenges with 2 hours to spare!

"This is first time I’ve come first somewhere. At Maharaja Surajmal Institute, I always placed third. I wish I could have called my Dad on stage now that I have come first. Since I was born, I have faced a lot of discrimination being a woman, I never stepped out of my house unchaperoned, even for a day. But when I shared my desire to move to Hyderabad to join Verizon, my dad supported me whole-heartedly, even against the wishes of other family members. He was the one who encouraged me for my education and supported my growth," said a very emotional Bharti.

Accepting the TechGig Geek Goddess 2017 title Bharti added, "Everyone says behind every successful man there is a woman, behind me it’s my dad. I dedicate my success and this award to him."

Bharti is a B. Tech from Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology (MSIT), with proficiency in Java and knowledge of Network and Data Security. Verizon was quick to recognize Bharti’s innate talent and employed her straight out of campus as a software developer at their Hyderabad facilities.

Women leaders from across the IT space graced the event and interacted with the contestants, including such stalwarts as,

·  Vasuta Agarwal, VP & GM, India at InMobi

·  Kalyani Sekar, Managing Director, Verizon Data Services India

·  Vidhya Krishnaswamy, Director, Sapient Razorfish

·  Deepika Goel, Vice President- Research and Analytics, Genpact

·  Anahita Varma, Managing Director - Financial Services, Technology, Accenture

·  Daisy Chittilapilly, Managing Director, Partner Organization, Cisco India and SAARC

·  Annie Mathew Director-Audience Marketing, Microsoft India

·  Bidisha Nagaraj, Chief Marketing Officer, Schneider Electric

·  Dipti Tandon, Head of Product and Technology, TechGig

Annie Mathew Director-Audience Marketing, Microsoft India, commented, “The passion and energy of the women coders at the finale was palpable. It was especially sweet to hear the stories of the women who won and others who came across and discussed the issues on top of their minds. It’s so important to have such events for women to bring out role models. So, thanks to TechGig for the Geek Goddess contests.”

Dipti Tandon, Head of Product and Technology, TechGig, thanked everyone for the resounding success of event by saying, “Each finalist at TechGig Geek Goddess is a winner, as we had 30,000 women register for the event, and only the top 100 made it to the final. This event not only revealed the top women coders from across India, but also gave an opportunity for them to interact and network with exemplary women leaders who were present at the grand finale.”

“The astonishing victory of MSIT graduate Bharti, at TechGig Geek Goddess substantiates our purpose of democratizing talent. We organize such events to promote true merit and reveal the best coding talent in the country by bringing coders from start-ups and established giants under one roof to compete and unleash their true potential, irrespective of their background. We wish Bharti tremendous success as a role model and inspiration to other women coders,” said Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.

Other winners at TechGig Geek Goddess 2017 were, RTMNU graduate Charmy Vora (Rank 2), Sneha Mujumdar from Pune University (Rank 3), Anusha Yakkala from IIT Kgp (Rank 4), and Sonal Bhargava from DAVIET (Rank 5).

Upcoming national level competitions and the complete list of winners and finalists are available on the TechGig website.