The Imagine Cup 10th Anniversary Sweepstakes has launched! 

To be eligible, students must simply register and sign-up for a competition by using referral code #10. They could win a free Kinect (6 winners per week) and a trip to the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney! Additionally, if these students convert to competitors, they could also be eligible to receive a free Sony PC.

Simply enter the sweepstake here http://www.imaginecup.com/CompetitionsContent/promotions/tenth-anniversary-sweepstakes.aspx

The Sweepstakes campaign will end on 13 March. Students who have previously registered are not eligible for this promotion.

“Youngsters love gadgets. So wouldn’t it be great if they could build their own, and at school? This is exactly what more than 70 British students, ages 13 to 16, are doing by using .NET Gadgeteer. On January 30, they gathered at the Microsoft Research Cambridge Lab to present their final projects and celebrate the end of the first .NET Gadgeteer school pilot project in the United Kingdom (UK).”

The .NET Gadgeteer pilot project aligns with the UK’s commitment to prioritize computer science education in schools, as spelled out by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, in his speech at the BETT Show (see School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme).

We look forward to more schools, colleges, and universities utilizing .NET Gadgeteer to unleash their students’ creativity and enthusiasm in technology in the UK, and beyond.

Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Program Manager, Microsoft Research Connections EMEA, and Steve Hodges, Principal Hardware Engineer, Microsoft Research Cambridge

Read more…

Learn More

• Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer
• Think Computer Science 2011
• Faculty Connection
• Microsoft DreamSpark

Last weekend I went along to Hack to the Future, the idea of Alan O’Donohoe, Teknoteacher on Twitter. Alan is a Secondary School  ITC teacher in Preston. However Alan really wants to make a difference for the next generation. Alan decided to setup up a unconference to support the development of Computer Science to young people in the form of a day of informal learning entitled – Hack to the Future or #h2df.

A direct quote from Alan

It is an un-conference that aims to provide young digital creators aged 11 – 18 with positive experiences of computing science and other closely related fields, ensuring that the digital creators of today engage with the digital creators of tomorrow.

We plan to offer a day that will inspire, engage and encourage young digital creator

I’m proud to say that Microsoft fully supports events such as so we involved Microsoft Research, MS Press and a number of other key partners to help support the event. Myself and Steven Johnston from Southampton University, who is also working with Microsoft Research as a Gadgeteer outreach manager developed a plan and we set off for Preston.
 
The event was all about the young people and it was amazing to see over 350+ young people plus around 100 teachers and parents attending the various talks, workshops and sessions at H2df. I have to stress the workshops and sessions at H2df were all hands on, and code based and Steven and myself spent the day at Hack to the future #h2df getting attendees hands on with the Microsoft .NET Gadgeter and had a great day.

We ran 7 sessions each with 10 laptops/kits and were packed out each session. (each kit with 3/4 students, we had to turn some students away due to the demand so apologies if you did not attend). Below is a copy of the sessions which we completed.

I have to state on the day we far more hands on with Visual Studio 2010 and C# and astounded by the skills of some of the younger developer (Hacklings, as Alan calls them)

During the session the attendees built the camera and those that completed early - built a cardboard case and mounted the components to create a a digital camera. Thanks to @coletteweston for these great pic of her daughter at the event who as you can see was very successful.

Overall the event was inspiring with children using Visual Studio 2010, some without any prior experience and writing C# and getting to play with the GHI Fez Spider Gadgeteer kits to build a fully working digital camera in around 30 mins – 45 mins. Hack to the Future was  an amazing day and really well done to Alan and the team of Our Ladies High School.

To end the day, Alan put on some indoor fireworks and did his his famous #h2df rap. Well done to Alan and all the other volunteers at Hack to the Future and a great start to inspiring computer scientist of the future.

Hands on training for I.T. Professionals

This year, Tech.Days events for IT implementers and professionals is changing.

The Microsoft UK TechNet team are bringing information, ideas and inspiration to your doorstep with a series of IT camp workshops across the country the first sessions are in Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle and London.

The camps are designed to deliver more freestyle learning with our evangelist hosts across a range of topics about the latest developments in hosted services and what Microsoft are doing in this field.

Across the next few months we'll cover how to Virtualise Servers, Build a Private cloud, Migrate from Windows Server 2003 and Manage consumer IT products on your networks.

Along with the hands on training there will be the usual Q&A, networking and a few other surprises thrown in…

Register for an event near you.

Thanks to all of the Universities who have updated their curricula to include Windows Phone.

For the past few month we have been running a number of Phone Camp across the UK and judging from all the questions and comments in relation to METRO there is clearly a lot of interest and passion around this topic from academics and students. 

So I thought I would share with you all a quick set of resources for Windows Phone Development.

Windows Phone

Consumer site www.windowsphone.com

AppHub – Developer Site for Windows Phone http://create.msdn.com

Windows Phone YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone (Watch Social, App and Web videos)

Resources

Windows Phone SDK http://www.DreamSpark.com

Windows Phone UX Guidelines http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202915(v=vs.92).aspx

Design Templates for Windows Phone 7 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196225

Windows Phone Grid  http://ux.artu.tv/?p=165

31 Weeks of Windows Phone Metro Design http://ux.artu.tv/?page_id=190

Get started, get the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 (Mango) http://create.msdn.com/en-us/home/getting_started

Silverlight Windows Phone 7.1 (Mango) Toolkit http://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/71550

Microsoft Design .toolbox Tutorials http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/tutorials.aspx

Microsoft Design .toolbox Courses http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/

· Calculator http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/modules.aspx?lid=16&mid=46

· Daily Awesome http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/modules.aspx?lid=17&mid=47

· Air Hockey http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/modules.aspx?lid=18&mid=48

· Golf http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/modules.aspx?lid=19&mid=49

Windows Phone Geek - UX Resources http://www.windowsphonegeek.com/Resources/UX#ux

Jeff Wilcox’s “Metro” design guide for developers, v1.00 http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2011/03/metro-design-guide-v1/

Quick Spacing, Margin, and Icon Tips for Windows Phone Devs http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2012/01/metroradio-design/

Videos

Full Day Event Windows Phone Design Sessions http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jaimer/archive/2010/08/13/windows-phone-design-day-recordings.aspx

Windows Phone Design Day

Metro | the foundation http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechDays/Tekniset-Esitystallenteet/TechNet-2011-Windows-Phone-UX-osa-1

Metro | the foundation part II http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechDays/Tekniset-Esitystallenteet/TechNet-2011-Windows-Phone-UX-osa-2

Think & Design | sketch, wireframe, prototype, design http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechDays/Tekniset-Esitystallenteet/TechNet-2011-Windows-Phone-UX-osa-3

Refine | Best Practices http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Design-Day-del-2-Refine-Best-Practices

Build | Building a Windows Phone App Prototype with Expression Blend http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/channel9spain/WINDOWS-PHONE-DESIGN-DAY-OPTIMIZA-Y-CONSTRUYE (Note: this video includes both REFINE and BUILD. BUILD starts at

BUILD 2011

Windows Phone User Experience Design http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/APP-832T

MIX11

All Thumbs: Redesigning an Existing UI to Suit Windows Phone 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/OPN02

Analyzing and Improving Windows Phone Application Performance http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/DVC01

Application Design for Windows Phone http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/DVC02

Windows Phone UI and Design Language (MIX10) http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX10/CL14

Design Talks

Mike Kruzeniski: Personal, Relevant. Connected: Designing Integrated Mobile Experiences for Apps and Web http://www.ixda.org/resources/mike-kruzeniski-personal-relevant-connected-designing-integrated-mobile-experiences-apps-a

How was CocktailFlow Designed? Creating a Beautiful Windows Phone 7 Application http://uktechdays.cloudapp.net/techdays-live/creating-a-beautiful-windows-phone-7-application.aspx

Albert Shum Talking about Windows Phone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD8MqWvARfA

ReMIX South 2011 Keynote with Albert Shum and Arturo Toledo http://www.vimeo.com/27800521

Channel 9

Silverlight TV 81: Four Great Windows Phone UX Tips http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-81-4-Great-Windows-Phone-UX-Tips

Silverlight TV 69: UX and Perceived Performance of WP7 Apps http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-69-UX-and-Perceived-Performance-of-WP7-Apps

Silverlight TV 83: Using Wireframes to Visually Communicate a Windows Phone Experience http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-83-Using-Wireframes-to-Visually-Communicate-a-Windows-Phone-Experience

Silverlight TV 75: Quick and Dirty UX Testing (Design Tips Mini Series) http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-75-Quick-and-Dirty-UX-Testing-Design-Tips-Mini-Series

Silverlight TV 78: Designing Tiles and Splash Screens for Windows Phone (Design Tips Mini Series) http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-78-Designing-Tiles-and-Splash-Screens-for-Windows-Phone-Design-Tips-Mini-Series

Inside Windows Phone #24 - User Experience for Windows Phone Apps http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Inside+Windows+Phone/Inside-Windows-Phone-24-User-Experience-for-Windows-Phone-Apps

Twitter

Windows Phone Design Team @wpdesignteam http://www.twitter.com/wpdesignteam

Windows Phone @windowsphone http://www.twitter.com/windowsphone

Mike Kruseniski Blog http://mkruzeniski.posterous.com/ Twitter @mkruzeniski http://twitter.com/mkruzeniski

Corrina Black, Windows Phone Design Lead for Developer Experience @corrinab http://twitter.com/corrinab

Arturo Toledo, UX Designer Developer Experience @arturot http://ux.artu.tv http://twitter.com/arturot

Windows Phone Design Twitter List http://twitter.com/#!/arturot/windows-phone-design

FREE Webinar – Deploying Windows 7

When - April 17th,  11am-12pm

This session will give you an overview of the key steps needed to plan for and deploy Windows 7 effectively.  If you want to teach the latest technology and curricula such as Windows Phone development then Windows 7 is a key requirement.

So take part in this FREE event and learn the skills, tips and tricks of a successful Windows 7 deployment.

There are a whole range of free tools and utilities from Microsoft that enable you to remove huge cost out of the deployment process. Including:

· How to simplify assessing your current PC estate for suitability

· Checking your application compatibility – and reducing the impact of any that aren’t compatible

· Application deployment methods to reduce your workload

· Capturing and migrating existing user data

· Automating deployments – from light touch to zero touch installations

The session will be relevant for IT services and desktop support staff.

You will also have chance to get any of your deployment questions answered by a Microsoft Specialist.

Register now - https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/microsoft1/Registration.aspx?pageName=g44771637dlklvz2

FREE – Online presentation Sharepoint 2010 in UK Education

When - March 27th, 11am-12pm

This session, presented by Dave Coleman, SharePoint MVP – will cover the key features of SharePoint 2010 –highlighting key education scenarios.   Whether you are completely new to SharePoint or have experience with previous versions, this session will give a great recap, and provide a “what’s new” in this current release.  You will also have the chance to get answers to any of your burning SharePoint questions.

Register Here - https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/microsoft1/Registration.aspx?pageName=z9g4c4lktqqztkdr

FREE - Online Meeting Presenting an Overview of System Center 2012 for UK Education

When :- March 6th, 11am-12pm

System Center 2012 can transform your IT Infrastructure, from your Desktops, to your Data Centre and out to the Cloud. 

Join this session, presented jointly by Microsoft and a Microsoft System Center Partner to understand what System Center 2012 can do for you. 

This online session will provide a good overview of the capabilities of the suite and also provide a “what’s new” update if you are aware of previous versions. 

You will also have chance to get your System Center questions answered by a Specialist.

Please Register here for the event - https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/microsoft1/Registration.aspx?pageName=4k1xkfk0jldm71b8

MAKING TOMORROW’S PROFESSIONALS FUTURE-READY

DynAA is a program for schools that want to enhance their curriculum by incorporating Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software. Participating institutions receive Microsoft Dynamics products for classroom use, support, and community-building opportunities, free of charge.

So if your looking at incorporating ERP or CRM software tools into your technology and business courses please take a moment to look at the following information. 

Also provided is a guide to help connect with local Microsoft Dynamics partners in order to develop mutually beneficial relationships.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for support at dynaa@microsoft.com. 

RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU:

Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance 

Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance Success Stories

Dynamic Academic Alliance curricula resources on Microsoft Faculty Connection 

EMAIL:  dynaa@microsoft.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:  Find the Dynamics Team on LinkedIn and Facebook!

A number of Universities have now added Cloud technologies into the curricula and at Microsoft we are assisting with the development of specific cloud computing curricula to support the teaching, learning and research of cloud technologies. As predicted by Analysts such as Gartner, IDC and Forrester cloud computing will take a substantial piece of the market from traditional deployment models.

Today there are four major cloud computing platforms available Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, Google App Engine and Force.com. There are a number of difference between each of these platforms Amazon and Microsoft have succeeded in building general-purpose cloud environment so meet the needs of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS and Google and SalesForce have specific SaaS offerings based on internal technology and use programming languages like Python and APEX.

Microsoft has developed curricula and certification to allow you as educators to make aware, train, educate and certify students on the use of cloud technologies. The adoption of the cloud within industry will grow demand for application developers and cloud administrators. Graduates will need these specific skills and experience  for roles such as cloud software engineers. 

Therefore the opportunity for student graduates with experience and understanding of cloud technologies is a huge.

What are these skills? 

In terms of skill sets both Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure can host applications written in different programming languages. However skills in Java and .NET are the most favourable as both are primary development platforms for Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure.

What is the Required Knowledge?

Mandatory Skills

A programmer looking to dive into Windows Azure application development should have a working knowledge of Microsoft .NET technologies. Particular skills are:

• .NET Framework 4.0

• ADO.NET Data Services

• LINQ

• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

• ASP.NET MVC 3.0

• Multi-threading

Developers should be familiar with RDMS concepts and MS SQL 2008. Additionally, a solid understanding of HTTP protocol and REST concept is very desirable as it helps to assess the implications of network topology (load balancers, proxy servers, CDNs) on RESTful web services. Knowledge of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) design principles is essential as cloud applications strongly rely on services. A great starting point is the Microsoft Cloud Curricula resources.

Cloud Concepts

The first logical step is to become familiar with cloud-related concepts and to adopt the principles of cloud application development. There is a lot of information on the Microsoft Faculty Connection site.

Cloud Development Skills

From a software developer's perspective, cloud can be treated as a way to get on-demand access to two types of scalable resources: compute (CPU) and storage which are available via services provided by the cloud platform. There are also great resources and presentations at Channel9 describing platform infrastructure and application lifecycle which will help you learn how Windows Azure hosting environment works in detail.

Azure Fundamentals 

Cloud application runs in a bare Windows 2008 operating system

Don't assume that Windows Azure hosting environment has any preinstalled software; it's a bare operating system. Any functionality, usually supported by preinstalled software, should be instead implemented within the application hosted on Windows Azure.

The application instance can be recycled by the platform at any point of time

Everything stored on a local disk drive memory will be deleted once the instance is recycled. To preserve the data and make it available to other instances, use Windows Azure Storage services.

Cloud application runs in a concurrent environment

Services provided by Windows Azure platform are designed to operate in concurrent environments with the use of "try and correct" pattern. The application should follow this pattern and properly handle cases in which access to a service is declined by repeating the operation later. Another aspect to keep in mind in that a web application under Windows Azure always runs behind load balancer.

Getting Started with Windows Azure Development

I would recommend looking at the resources and curricula available at the Microsoft Faculty Connection site additionally if your not familiar with Visual Studio 2010 we have a number of resources available.

Development Environment

The Windows Azure development environment requires Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 or Windows 2008 operating system. The following software should be installed via DreamSpark.com

• Visual Studio 2010 Professional (FREE to all Students at http://www.dreamspark.com)

• Windows Azure Tools & SDK (latest version is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sdk/)

• Windows Azure Storage Explorer – a convenient GUI tool to explore Azure storage (available at http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com/)

• Code samples (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure).

You can then use the Windows Azure Virtual Lab resources to start you Azure Cloud experience.

Web, Worker and VM Roles

There are three types of application roles supported by Windows Azure:

• Web role

• Worker role

• Virtual Machine (VM) role

Further information on these roles can be found in Introducing the Windows Azure Platform (Whitepaper)

Storage Services

There are three types of storage supported by Windows Azure platform:

• Blob storage

• Table storage

• Queue storage

The services are exposed via REST API and available outside of Windows Azure hosting environment as well, so one can create an application for a mobile device which interacts directly with the storage. Windows Azure SDK comes with a managed library providing access to storage services via an object model. Further information on these types can be found in Introducing the Windows Azure Platform (Whitepaper) and at Steve Planks Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/plankytronixx/

There are several important things to know when working with Azure storage:

• Storage objects are addressed by URL, so certain restrictions are applied to the object name.

• There are three types of blobs: single blob, block blob and page blob. Each of them has a minimum and a maximum size.

• Table storage is not a relational database. There are no relationships, indexes and constraints. It's more like an Excel spreadsheet highly scalable in the number of rows.

• A table always includes two properties (PartitionKey and RowKey) forming a primary key, the total length of the key can't exceed 1024 symbols. Only 256 symbols of the primary key can be used to address the record.

• Table always includes Timestamp field used to resolve conflicts

• Table has limits of 1M per entity (row) and 64K per property (field)

• Sorting is not supported by Table storage, so it's always done on the client side.

• Maximum number of records returned by a query against Table is limited to 1,000 entities per request. A continuation token should be used to retrieve subsequent data.
  

Azure Storage Performance

Azure storage performance http://azurescope.cloudapp.net/BenchmarkTestCases/ which gives a good idea of storage throughput under different scenarios.

Azure SQL

Azure SQL is a cloud version of regular MS SQL database. It looks like a complete replacement of regular MS SQL database with minor restrictions on T-SQL syntax. However, the fundamental restriction of Azure SQL is size limit of 50Gb per database. Another key advantage is that the Azure SQL databases is available outside of Windows Azure hosting environment. Additionally it is possible to setup access restrictions based on an IP address.

AppFabric

Windows Azure AppFabric is a set of middleware services designed to facilitate development of enterprise applications on top of Windows Azure. Learning AppFabric SDK is not required to develop Windows Azure applications, however one service highly demanded by developers to take note of: Cache service which provides fast access to in-memory data storage.

Deployment

You have arrived at the stage when your first Windows Azure application is implemented and tested in the development environment. To deploy the application to the Windows Azure environment, you need to sign up for the service. There is a free trial available for 90 days

Once the account is set, you can create a storage account and a hosted service. Each hosted service supports two environments: staging and production. Deploying the application is quite simple and requires uploading a package and a configuration file. The application in the staging environment is available under a private URL for testing purposes. Once the staging environment is tested, it can be switched to production in a single click.