Organized by Microsoft in association with the Computer Society of the IEEE, the event is intended to reward honor students for making significant contributions to solving real-world problems through innovative devices based on Windows CE.
The theme for
this year's Windows ChallengE was "Going Beyond the Boundaries." Students were challenged to design their Windows Embedded devices with this guiding principle in mind.
Of the 30 university teams presenting their projects, ten came from China, six from the US, five from Romania (three from a single university), three from India, two from an Australian university and one each from the academic realms of Mexico, Slovenia, Turkey, and Brazil. The teams were each comprised of four students and one faculty mentor.
Alphabetically, by country, the 30 finalists are listed below. Click each project title to download a PDF "final report" on each project.
- Drowsy Driver Alerting Systems -- Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia
- Intelligent Watering System -- Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT); Melbourne, Australia
- StreetBlog -- Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho Unesp Bauru; Faculdade de Ciencias, Brazil
- SMART (Smart Market Assistants & Recreation Trolley) -- Beijing Institute of Technology; Beijing, China
- Mobile Assistant for the Blind -- Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Beijing, China
- WindTalker translation service for travelers -- Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; Beijing, China
- Sporting Personal Assistant -- Beijing University of Technology; Beijing, China
- Flowing Traffic System -- Nanjing University, Software Institute; Nanjing, China
- Gingko Short Message System for cellphones -- Nanjing University; Nanjing, China
- Interactive Exhibition information/communication system for public exhibitions -- Peking University; Beijing, China
- Currahee Netmeeting System -- Shanghai Jiaotong University; Shanghai, China
- EasyOrder self-service order system for restaurants -- Shanghai Jiaotong University; Shanghai, China
- SmartGuard security system -- College of Software Engineering, SouthEast University; Nanjing, China
- SapienNet wireless mobile ad-hoc network -- Indian Institute of Technology; Guwahati, India
- Nightingale emergency medical response system -- J.S.S. Academy of Technical Education; Bangalore, India
- Infostation proximity network -- Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering; Delhi, India
- HealthCom remote health monitoring system -- Monterrey Institute of Technology; Guadalajara, Mexico
- Biologically Enhanced Electronical Surveillance Project -- Gheorghe Asachi Technical University; Iasi, Romania
- Invisanet (Intelligent Visualisation Aerial Network) -- Politechnica University of Bucharest; Bucharest, Romania
- Helly Teddy! electronic babysitter -- Politechnica University of Bucharest; Bucharest, Romania
- IntelliTraffic adaptive traffic control system -- Politechnica University of Bucharest; Bucharest, Romania
- iLIT intelligent literacy tool -- University of Craiova; Cariova, Romania
- EthnoCon language aid for travelers -- University of Maribor; Maribor, Slovenia
- Smart Wheelchair -- 9 Eylul University; Ismir, Turkey
- SmartPac, the backpack with a brain -- California State University; Northridge, California, US
- MICARS (Mobile Image Capture and Retrieval System) -- California State University; Long Beach, California, US
- STEMS (Secure Traffic-light Emergency Management System) -- Georgia Institute of Technology; Atlanta, Georgia, US
- RADVIS (Radar Auxiliary Detection for the Visually Impaired and Sighted) -- Iowa State University of Science and Technology; Ames, Iowa, US
- iFree Wheelchair Medical Sensor Entertainment System -- San Jose University; San Jose, California, US
- DRIIVE (Dynamic Road and Intra/Inter-Vehicle Exchange Network) -- University of Nebraska; Lincoln, Nebraska, US
And the winners are . . . On June 19, one winner and four runners-up were announced:
- Fifth place -- Taking fifth place was the Gingko Short Message System from Nanjing University, which Microsoft said "enables cellphone users to manage their SMS messages more intelligently, securely, and efficiently without any additional hardware cost."
- Fourth place -- In fourth place was the StreetBlog from the Brazilian academic team, an "innovative . . . embedded device that serves as a communal blog for everyone in the surrounding public area, such as a busy street corner, to post to."
- Third place -- Third place went to Invisanet from the Polytechnica University of Bucharest, "a system that gathers and intelligently interprets bird's-eye views of nearby terrains. It uses a network of aerial units flying at a low altitude that take pictures of the terrain and send them to a ground station for processing and dissemination."
- Second place -- Winning second place was the Infostation project from the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India, "a comprehensive information acquisition, processing and delivery system that can be deployed in small or communities to provide locally customized information to individuals regardless of their economic or educational status."
And the first place "champions" are . . ."Microsoft Corporation is pleased to announce the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Team (RMIT) as the 2005 Windows Embedded Student ChallengE World Champions."
The champion students on the REMIT team, developers of the
EverGreen intelligent watering station, are Daravuth Luong, Alexander Reptis, Jason Shrapnel and Stephen van Rees; their mentor is Professor David Jones. They and the other 29 teams now have the opportunity to participate in the Computer Society's own design competition -- the Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC) -- in Washington, D.C., June 27 to 29, 2005.
In addition, Microsoft awarded the following cash prizes (shown in USD) to top five winners:
1st Prize -- $8,000
2nd Prize -- $6,000
3rd Prize -- $4,000
4th Prize -- $3,200
5th Prize -- $2,400
EverGreenThe Windows CE based EverGreen, as Microsoft described it, is "an intelligent watering system that communicates with local authorities to determine how much rain has fallen in an area and also predicts future rainfall. Using this information, the system calculates the optimum amount of water to dispense into a garden or field, factoring in the soil type, area of coverage and plant species present."
EverGreen system overview. Windows CE runs inside the "eBox II"The potential savings in water from the use of EverGreen are substantial," according to the RMIT team. "While the need for EverGreen in the Australian market is obvious, and the benefits considerable, the use of EverGreen is also beneficial in other countries that value the preservation of our natural resources."
Microsoft noted that the champions of the 2004 Windows Embedded Student ChallengE contest from James Madison University had recently leveraged their project into a small start-up business. Their project: an airport-security device that detects the presence of bombs or other dangerous substances.
Related stories: 
