The odd ramblings of a geek pretending to not be "all grown up" : Imagine Cup

The Aussies Rocked

AndrewParsons — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:01:41 GMT

OK, I’m biased. You don’t need to tell me.

But regardless of what you think, the Australian team for Software Design absolutely did indeed rock their presentation. Every time I’ve seen them they’ve been better than the last, but seriously – they were like a group of professionals who had been doing their job for years. The presentation was smooth, articulate and they fielded the questions thrown at them with aplomb and a self-assurance that was exciting to watch.

Their eGreen solution generated some genuine interest from several of the judges, with one coming up afterwards to congratulate the team on coming up with a solution that could impact people worldwide.

Now the “but”. :(

Unfortunately, there were at least twelve other teams who rocked it even better than the Aussies did. That might sound like a lot, but remember there were close to 70 teams in the Software Design category, so going from 70 to 12 is pretty brutal and there were many students who were impacted by the cut.

The next round occurred immediately after the announcement was made, and later in the evening we learned who the top 6 teams were, including Brazil, Spain and Taiwan. I’ll blog coverage of the final presentations tomorrow.

I want to congratulate Team eGreen for being such amazing ambassadors for Australia and showing the world how skilled Aussie students are. Good on you Donovan, Xharmagne and James (and well done, Dat).

Competition is now underway!

AndrewParsons — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:34:33 GMT

Wow, this is easily the most epic event I’ve ever been involved in. If you’re following my twitter feed (@mrandypuppy) you’ll know that I’ve been using words like “awesome”, “cool” and “wow” a lot as well as a bunch of exclamation marks. I’m conscious of it but I keep getting wowed by the experience, and I know this is just the beginning.

So far I’ve experienced:

Catching a flight from Singapore to Cairo via Dubai with 60+ passengers being Imagine Cup competitors, their mentors and several of my peers. I was told about solutions that teams had come up with and the passion these kids have is inspiring, but with good reason. I mean, when an Indonesian talks for 30 minutes non-stop about a Malaria early detection system they developed, it’s hard to not be engaged.
Carrying the Cup through Customs at Cairo and being questioned about the mysterious box.
Today was briefing day – briefings for students, mentors, judges, employees, briefings everywhere. At first I thought it was over the top, but there is so much information to consume that it is totally warranted.
Tonight was the official opening of the Imagine Cup competition. The highlights were:

Student parade of the countries, a la the Olympics. Huge response as each team entered and again I was struck by how many countries are represented and how some of them strike me as out of this world – seriously, I never really thought about a team of students from Senegal showing solid innovation, or the inspiring stories of some of the teams just getting here like Palestine and Indonesia.
Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect for Microsoft, telling the students that they truly are the future of creativity in technology because they’re not hampered by previous experience and preconceptions.
Joe Wilson, the man who makes Imagine Cup happen every year (well, the man, behind the team of awesome dudes and dudettes that make it happen every year) pumping the students up and getting them ready for the competition and having all 445 students on the edge of their seats, hanging on every word.
The Egyptian student who stood up during the proceedings to thank his government for their support of Imagine Cup and the roar of the crowd in appreciation.

sigh.

Tomorrow – first EPIC day of the competition. All 67 Software Development teams present, as well as Game Development, Embedded Development and other teams – all in action. The logistics to make all this happen are nightmarish, but everyone behind the scenes are positive and upbeat and just making it all happen.

Finalists for National Imagine Cup Announced

AndrewParsons — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:36:44 GMT

I love my job. Sorry if you’ve heard me say that before, but I do. And it’s for moments like these. I got to tell the five teams who made it to the Australian Finals of the Imagine Cup that they had indeed succeeded in Round 1 and would be presenting their solutions to a judging panel and general public with a chance to win the opportunity to represent Australia in Cairo, Egypt at the world finals of Imagine Cup.

Team One – deCarbonate

Team deCarbonate decided to address environmental sustainability by helping people see the impact of their personal lives and actions through a carbon footprint calculator with mitigation suggestions and additional information aimed at highlighting actions that everyone can do to minimise their impact on the environment in a very real sense.

Team Two – eGreen

A comprehensive and potentially revolutionary system, eGreen seeks to help monitor all parts of the item production supply chain so that consumers know what impact they have on the environment when they buy particular goods. Using RFID tags, a special rating system developed by the eGreen team and web servers and other real world technologies, the system makes people aware of the full extent of the environmental impact of the products they plan to purchase.

Team Three – IWork

IWork is short for Instant Work, and is a system developed by this Canberra-based team to help job seekers find work easily and quickly with very little expenditure, addressing the need around the world of low income people who often need work in very short timeframes. This innovative solution integrates multiple technologies to help people take advantage of new access to things like internet access.

Team Four – Xtreme

Team Xtreme have developed the Fire Location and Managing Environment (FLAME) as a web-driven application that tackles a local issue that extends to the global scape where, worldwide, bushland hazard reduction management needs to be improved. Their solution uses a number of technologies to ease management of bushfires and other bushland issues and used real world situations and collaboration with local fire departments to ensure they met the actual needs found in today’s society.

Team Five – Firefighters

Our second Sydney team, and our second bushfire management system is perhaps unsurprising given the huge risks faced each year in bushfire season in Sydney’s surrounds and particularly in light of the tragedies that occurred earlier this year, it’s actually a great outcome that Imagine Cup enables students to tackle real issues that face can us quite personally.

As I have previously posted, the finals will be held at the North Ryde office of Microsoft Australia and are open to the public to attend – but it’s essential you register so we can make sure you fit in. Also, by registering, you’ll go into the draw to win lucky door prizes (like a Xbox 360 console), so don’t miss out on your own chance to win.

This is your last chance to come along – seats are running out so act now. Send an email to ausic@microsoft.com with your name, phone number and how many people you’re registering for if you’re intending to bring others with you.

The event starts at 6pm, Wednesday 27 May at:

1 Epping Road

North Ryde NSW 2113

I hope to see you there!

Imagine Cup Local Finals – Register your attendance today!

AndrewParsons — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:49:47 GMT

COOL! We’re on the final approach for Imagine Cup 2009 and I’m happy to announce that we’ll be holding the local finals for Australia on the evening of the May 27th.

The top teams who have entered the Software Design category go head to head with some incredibly creative and innovative ideas on how to make our world, and our country, a better place.

This year, the finals are open to the public although seats are limited. Come and see the competitors present their solutions to a panel of judges from the industry, media, academia and Microsoft and find out who will be going to Cairo, Egypt to represent Australia at the worldwide finals.

This is a great opportunity for students, teachers and faculty to see why we are so keen about Imagine Cup and how it can help make a difference through technology.

The details:

Date: 27 May 2009
Time: 6:00pm start, finishing approximately 9:00pm
Where: Microsoft Australia office
1 Epping Road
North Ryde, NSW 2113
Cost: Free to attend

To ensure you’ve got a place, send an email to Australian Imagine Cup with your name, contact phone number in case of emergencies and how many people you’re registering for, if you’re bringing more than just yourself. Note that if you do not register, you may not be admitted to the event if we’re oversubscribed, so don’t miss out.

Hey, I almost forgot, for those who register, you might even get a chance to win some cool lucky door prizes.

Podcast: Imagine Cup

AndrewParsons — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:58:13 GMT

Imagine Cup is the world’s biggest technology competition for students and you can be a part of it. Check out this week’s podcast which is all about Imagine Cup, including an interview with David Burela, one of the winners of this year’s Imagine Cup. Get to the article directly: MICROSOFT - Imagine Cup

The full podcast feed is available at: My Microsoft Podcast Feed

Student Day has been and gone

AndrewParsons — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:07:09 GMT

Well, Student Day has been and gone, and I must say, it absolutely rocked. The high school morning session was overflowing with kids from all years (more than a thousand of them!) keen to hear about just what the “now” Microsoft is all about and why they would consider a career in technology. The university session in the afternoon was a smaller crowd but not a lot less vocal in their appreciation, enthusiasm and interest in the topics presented on the day.

From the opening keynote that highlighted how important technology is to the world and how a large chunk of companies, innovations and all around technological goodness has come from people aged under 25. To the wow sessions on PhotoSynth, Popfly and XNA. To the thousands of dollars worth of software and hardware given away to both groups of people, including Xbox 360’s, copies of Vista and Office and ultra cool webcams. Every aspect was avidly devoured by all who attended.

And to supplement it all came the public unveiling of Students to Business and Dreamspark, two programs aimed at empowering students with technology and access. Given the enormous value both of these programs have, I’ll blog about them each in turn later in the week, but they, along with the awesome video about Imagine Cup were the perfect cherry on top for the day.

It's almost here!

AndrewParsons — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:22:00 GMT

Well, after months of planning by some very brilliant people like Karo Esmaili and Roger Lawrence, and a mad dash over the past week by the whole team, Student Day is almost here. And man, what a day it's gonna be!

Joe Wilson, the top dude for Academic Relations, is flying over from the US to talk about a Microsoft that may sound foreign to a lot of people - a Microsoft that's modern-day cool. And of course, bolstering that is the stuff I've spoken about previously - Student 2 Business, DreamSpark and Imagine Cup - as well as some funky stuff on PhotoSynth, Robotics, XNA Game Studio and more.

For those of you in university, there are still some spots open but you're going to have to be mega quick given it's on tomorrow. For those of you already registered - see you there!

Student Day registrations hotting up

AndrewParsons — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:58:00 GMT

Wow. I had an update meeting on Friday to see how things were progressing for Student Day and found out that registrations are really hotting up. We're very rapidly approaching the upper limit in terms of numbers, particularly for the high school session in the morning. This is fantastic news, because I know how much value attendees are going to get out of this free conference. So, this is a call out to all students, university and high school, and teachers, tutors, mentors and lecturers; if you've been thinking "I'll get around to that later", you might want to start thinking "I'll get around to that today"! :)

One of the things I mentioned in my last post was Imagine Cup ( www.imaginecup.com ). Imagine Cup is a global competition run by Microsoft to engage the creativity, imagination and passion of students all over the world. Each year the competition runs with a number of categories such as Software Development and Design, Game Development and IT challenges, but the categories also include more media-based and more accessible categories. There are categories for Short Film and Photography and, for the first time this year, Mashups.

Students can win cash prizes, trips overseas and the chance to participate in some cool programs that help them take their creations further. All you need to do is ask Team SOAK, the winners of the premier category, Software Development and Design, about how much they got out of going to Paris, presenting their solution in the Louvre, and coming out on top, to see how much of an impact participating in Imagine Cup has had on them.

But the really cool thing is that the competition provokes students to think about global issues and how they can play a part in raising awareness or even to help solve them, regardless of how small a part that might be.

This year's theme is Solve the World's Toughest Problems, and the competition is taking the United Nations' lead on which problems need to be looked at through the 8 Millennium Goals). We're talking about things like ending poverty, providing universal education, increased child health and gender equality around the world (check out the link for the complete list: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ ).

Remember, the competition isn't just for programmers - it's for anyone who has a passion for using technology to help make the world a better place. The finalists in each category will be flown to Egypt to compete against their global competition, and any student team can enter, so what are you waiting for? :)

Here's a quick description of each of the categories:

Software Design - We are asking students to create real world software and services applications that use Microsoft tools and technology. It's not just about the PC anymore - students need to think about taking advantage of mobile devices as well. Think big! The judging requires students to use their creativity and drive if they want to compete on the world stage. This is where legends are born and lives are changed - where an application starts as an idea and ends up being used all over the world.
Embedded Development - The object of the Embedded Development Invitational is to unleash students' creativity in an effort to change the world into a better place. They will develop their own embedded device whose function is to better us all. The Embedded Development Invitational challenges students to go beyond the PC desktop and work in both hardware and software to build an embedded solution using Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 and the provided embedded platform.
Game Development - The object of the Game Development Invitational is to create a new game that uses both Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Visual Studio. Competitors' games should illustrate the Imagine Cup theme "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." This is a chance for students who've always enjoyed playing games to create their own game and at the same time help change the global community. The Game Development Invitational is a great opportunity for learning and advancement towards an important step in their budding careers either as a game developer or as an entrepreneur in the game business. This is the students' opportunity to build a full game from scratch!
Robotics - Robots need more than gears and wires - they require highly sophisticated algorithms to interpret and interact with the world around them. This competition is a mathematical obstacle course where students must navigate a series of brain teasers, code challenges and algorithmic puzzles to demonstrate their ability to understand the potential of robots in our world. This exciting event takes place in a virtual world as students progress through increasingly difficult rounds.
IT Challenge - Students are challenged to develop, deploy, and maintain IT systems that are elegant, functional, robust and secure. This demanding competition requires students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the science of networks, databases, and servers. They also need to show their analytical abilities and make tough decisions in IT environments.
MashUp - The object of the MashUp competition is to create a new and useful Web 2.0 application that is connected to the Imagine Cup theme "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." Students will use Microsoft PopFly to leverage current third party data and services available on the internet to create a new and unique tool that is effectively consumed by other internet users as their Imagine Cup entry.
Photography - Great photographers know a single image can change the world. In this competition, students communicate a story that explores a critical issue through a photo essay of inspiring still images. The photos must grab the audience and illustrate the students' personal insight into these global issues.
Short Film - We all love to go to the movies but some of us love to make movies! Filmmaking is a technical craft combined with the art of storytelling using moving images. A short film has the difficulty of conveying a message in a brief period of time while also being visually stimulating. In this competition, students will be challenged to create an original short film and also demonstrate excellence in filmmaking at all levels from concept art to polished editing.

As I mentioned earlier, these last three categories are perfect for any student to use technology in creative ways to promote awareness and even help solve the world's greatest issues.

If you want more info, please register for Student Day - Joe Wilson will talk about Imagine Cup in his opening keynote and university students will have an opportunity to hear from the worldwide winners for 2008 directly.

Also, feel free to contact me if you have any queries about Imagine Cup and I'll do my best to answer them for you. You can contact me at aparson {at} microsoft {dot} com.