Post by Optik Consultancy

What a day of hands-on learning and growth. Yesterday, our Optik interns learned AI directly from industry. Not as a theory session. As a hands-on hackathon with Cognizant and Amazon Web Services (AWS), where students explored how AI is shaping industry, learned the #AWS #Kiro platform, formed teams, built solutions, received mentor feedback, and presented their ideas back to industry judges. What made this even more meaningful was the generosity behind it. This was not just for our 69 current Optik interns. Cognizant, our main sponsor, generously opened the opportunity to other students as well, bringing the room to nearly 80 participants. That matters. Because industry readiness is not built in the classroom alone. It grows when students are trusted with real tools, real expectations, real feedback, and real industry conversations. The feedback said it all: students felt more confident with AI, valued the hands-on collaboration, and left having actually built something. They walked away knowing how to apply AI in the real world, including beyond technical fields. This is the kind of industry-embedded learning we are building through Optik, and more to come. A sincere thank you to Cognizant, especially the leadership team Carla Ramchand, Samir Sawant, Swati Jha, Rebecca (Becky) Edney, and mentors Ramkumar Varman, Kitting Monje, Imran Pachapuri, Keshav Singh Antal, Soma Gupta, Avneet Kaur, Paul Mathew, Lalit Varma for your leadership, mentorship, and support. And thank you to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Adrian Tadros, Maxwell Lee, Artur Bashmakov, Madison Wright for bringing the platform, expertise, and industry insight into the room. Lastly thanks also to University of Technology Sydney leadership team Sarah Angus and Jeremy Lindeck form coming out to support us. When industry opens the door, students do not just learn. They start to see where they can belong.