Additional profile information on Alfred Thompson at Google+
Back last November I posted a short link to NASA’s Be A Martian program page. I guess I didn’t realize at the time that there was a programming competition called the Pathfinder Innovation Challenge as part of that. Not strictly a student competition but many may be interested in it. Here is the reminder announcement I received in my email today.
NASA has hundreds of thousands of images from their missions to Mars. With the Pathfinder Innovation Challenge, they want to enlist your coding skills to help them classify them. This is a unique opportunity where you can help NASA and win some great prizes by utilizing your existing .NET skills. The Pathfinder Innovation Challenge consists of four different “leagues”. In the Global Cooperation League, you’ll build casual games that will allow every day citizens to help classify images in a game environment (similar to the counting craters application that can be found online here – http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/maproom) and do so using Silverlight and NASAs Azure-hosted APIs in codename Dallas. In the Intelligence League, you’ll use the power of the Azure cloud to attempt to solve the same problem by programmatically examining and classifying the images. Full details for the competition can be found on their website at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic . Details specific to the Global Cooperation League at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/coop-league and details for the Intelligence League can be found at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/intelligence-league . Also be sure to check out the intelligence league site for a series of “How Do I?” videos that show how to sign up for an use the Codename Dallas API. In addition to helping mankind and being able to brag that your code was helping NASA, PIC winners will also win amazing prizes ranging from NASA swag, to ZuneHDs, to trips to see the launch of the next Mars Rover.
NASA has hundreds of thousands of images from their missions to Mars. With the Pathfinder Innovation Challenge, they want to enlist your coding skills to help them classify them. This is a unique opportunity where you can help NASA and win some great prizes by utilizing your existing .NET skills.
The Pathfinder Innovation Challenge consists of four different “leagues”. In the Global Cooperation League, you’ll build casual games that will allow every day citizens to help classify images in a game environment (similar to the counting craters application that can be found online here – http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/maproom) and do so using Silverlight and NASAs Azure-hosted APIs in codename Dallas. In the Intelligence League, you’ll use the power of the Azure cloud to attempt to solve the same problem by programmatically examining and classifying the images.
Full details for the competition can be found on their website at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic . Details specific to the Global Cooperation League at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/coop-league and details for the Intelligence League can be found at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/intelligence-league . Also be sure to check out the intelligence league site for a series of “How Do I?” videos that show how to sign up for an use the Codename Dallas API.
In addition to helping mankind and being able to brag that your code was helping NASA, PIC winners will also win amazing prizes ranging from NASA swag, to ZuneHDs, to trips to see the launch of the next Mars Rover.
Microsoft is doing a number of things to help people enter and grow in technology careers. Yesterday there was a post on Microsoft On The Issues called Microsoft Bolsters Efforts to Create More Opportunity for College Grads about some of those things. But there is also a program called Students 2 Business that I would like to highlight today. Specifically the new Career Streams site.
Do you know there are great technical careers out there waiting for you? Have you ever wondered…
Learn about the skills that employers seek and relevant experience to land the job through Microsoft S2B Career Streams. Career Streams will introduce you to a variety of technical careers that are in demand today and tomorrow in the Microsoft community. It will help you learn the skills needed to get started in a technical career and offer opportunities to gain that vital first work experience. Career Streams guide you through three stages of training:
Once you complete a career stream, employers can find you through Students to Business as the career stream will automatically populate your online portfolio – searchable by employers. Career Streams available today include: Web Developer, Web Designer, IT Security Specialist, Server Administrator, Network Specialist.
Register Today. Microsoft S2B Career Streams are FREE for students. All you need to do is register at http://s2b.experience.com/alumnus/career_streams and to begin your career!
Small Basic is now part of the Beginning Developer Learning Center. Looks like the whole landing page for the BDLC has been updated as well. Check out the Kids’s Corner for links for:
New Small Basic Links:
· Links page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc979165.aspx
· New Small Basic home page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/ff384126.aspx
· New Small Basic FAQ page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/ff384239.aspx
· New Small Basic International Links page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/ff423682.aspx