Imagine Cup Australia : education

Imagine Cup 2008 site goes live

ausic — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:30:00 GMT

'Allo Frenchie! The site for Imagine Cup 2008 to be held in Paris is now up at www.imaginecup.com. You can't register or access the forums yet, but you can read all about the theme for next year (sustainability), and most importantly, read about the new XBOX 360 GAMES DEVELOPMENT CATEGORY!!! Whilst the web development category has sadly been axed for Paris, I know alot of casual games developers out there who'll be thrilled with the addition of a games category they can compete in.

If you listen to one thing I say all year, it's GET STARTED ON YOUR IMAGINE CUP 2008 ENTRIES NOW! It's amazing how quick time slips away, and the best entries are the one's who have had time to thoroughly think a problem through and talk to a number of different parties before even starting development, so to increase your chances of making it to the Aussie finals (and maybe the world finals) next year, start thinking about your project now.

First day of the Finals - or at least the 3 hours we saw of it.

ausic — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:57:00 GMT

The world finals began today in Korea and already the team from UC have lost some members. Nothing like a hapless airline to break a team apart. Due to massive incompetence on behalf of Australia's major airline (I'm as subtle as a sledgehammer), the team got split up at Sydney airport. So some of us are already here, whilst others are still in transit or in Sydney. Luckily there was no competition today. But thats a whole other complaint letter!

1&2. Microsoft know how to throw a party, yep yep! The hotel where Imagine Cup is being held.

We're here, and this is one of the coolest sights I've ever seen. 2 WHOLE HOTELS BOOKED OUT FULL OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPER STUDENTS. Yeh, 2 hotels. And I'm not talking Formule1 either - Sheraton and W Hotel ain't no joke. There's full size bottles of Chivas Regal and Remi Martin in the minibar for chrissakes!

It's amazing the amount of stuff thats going on as I walk through the hotels. From the chill out lounge with the fully stocked fridge full of free coke / ice tea / water / lolly water and 6 player xbox360 to the sheer size of the main hall, I think this could be the most excited I've been about anything since Jay-Z announced his retirement (language warning on that last link). If you are a software design / computing science student thinking of joining Imagine CUp next year, DO IT! I'm so stoked on IC right now and everyone is having so much fun! And the realy interesting stuff hasn't even started yet.

Tomorrow sees the kick off of the actual competition, which is probably what most of the reaaders of this blog would be interested in. Participants will then be culled from around 55 teams to the final 12. Then we have a day's sightseeing on Wednesday (topped of by dinner with the mayor of Seoul and lunch at the Seoul Olympics Gym). The final 12 teams duke it out further on the Thursday, then we wrap things up on Friday with a party! Heck yeh! Well deserved too to the students. There's some good work here this year.

Anyways, I could type all night I'm so excited but I had better pack this one in here - I have to go and organise a ride for the other team members from Incheon airport to the hotel due to our planned flights being overbooked. Thanks QANTAS!

Australian Imagine Cup Finalists announced

ausic — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:43:00 GMT

The three top teams for this year's national software design finals in late June have been decided. In the interest of ensuring hot competition in Melbourne, I won't go into the finer details of their entries, but the finalists are:

"The Intelligent Gorillas" (Queensland University of Technology) - developed an application for peer-based learning and discussion using a Powerpoint presentation as a starting point for something that becomes so much more.

"Team APA" (University of Canberra) - developed a tool to help blind people program in C#.NET

"Smart Education" (University of Canberra) - think WebCT mashed up with Facebook, giving a very 'now' solution to student problems.

There was a cluster of exciting, high quality entries in this year's competition, making choosing a shortlist pretty tough. Unfortunately, only 3 teams can proceed to the finals. There's still the People's Choice Awards coming up in late June for the best national entrants, so watch this space - if you've missed out on making the national finals, you're still in the running to take out people's choice!

Using Photoblog to Improve Rural Education

ausic — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:25:00 GMT

(Rural Indian children's photoblog, BBC) Children in the rural parts of India are employing photoblogs to develop new life skills and improve their reading and writing abilities.
This is an effective use of technology to enable a better education for all. It's cheap, highly visalbe and a very scable solution. I reckon other possible enhancements could include a simple integration of mash up of various web technologies in such a tool. These can also help the children to understand other parts of the world too.

Imagine - technological innovation to improve access and level of education to rural parts of Australia?

Cross-linked to http://bernardoh.wordpress.com/2007/02/08/rural-indian-childrens-photoblog/

Making an Informed Choice

ausic — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:19:00 GMT

The 2006 Shanghai Jiao Tang University annual global university ranking had been released. Making an informed choice for a university is certainly a daunting task. There are tons of information out there, often representing a conflicting view of a university ranking. What if there is an application that can help parents, teachers, career advisors and students by aggregating these data out there and perform some cross-analysis of the data?

Or maybe a tool that help student to develop a preliminary understanding which university program suits their interests better? I think with such a tool, students and parents can have a more meaningful conversion with the university academics during Open Days.