Microsoft has picked six finalist teams in the Embedded Development category of its Imagine Cup student competition. The judging in Cairo, Egypt, dramatized by an interesting series of YouTube videos, was the last step before tomorrow's announcement of three winners, according to the...
company.
Imagine Cup 2009 marks the seventh year of the Imagine Cup competition, which is continuing despite challenging financial conditions. The event, billed as the premier technology competition for students, challenges young programmers, artists, and technologists around the world to "imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today," according to Microsoft.
Replacing a Windows Embedded Student Challenge run by Microsoft in the past, the Imagine Cup's key "Embedded Development" category asked teams of three or four competitors, and a faculty mentor, to develop a "embedded device whose function it is to better us all." Twenty winning teams, listed in our previous coverage, made their way to Cairo, where they presented their devices -- competing for tomorrow's $25,000 first place prize, $10,000 second place prize, and $5,000 third place prize.
In this weekend's judging, the twenty teams were whittled down -- first to 12, and then to six. Rather than provide any spoilers up front, we'll embed Microsoft's entertaining YouTube videos here, then provide written confirmation of the finalists, below.
In the first video, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie welcomes the student teams to Cairo, noting that the Imagine Cup featured 444 students, 149 times, and 70 different countries, and stating, "What you've accomplished here is nothing short of amazing to me." In the second video, Embedded Development event captain Scott Davis (right) says, "The expectations that we have for crowning a champion are very high."
Day One of Imagine Cup 2009 Source: Microsoft (click to play)
Day Two of the Imagine Cup, cutting 20 teams down to 12, and finally to six Source: Microsoft (click to play)
Day Three of the Imagine Cup, where the final six face the judges for the last time Source: Microsoft (click to play)
As revealed in the above videos, the six teams that have gone into the last round of the Imagine Cup Embedded Development competition are as follows, listed by team name:
AST, from Turkey, whose "ProFarming" project is intended as an upgrade to present-day farming machinery
Brainy Brownie and the marvelous thinker threats, from Mexico, whose "Hygea" project is intended to automate treatment of heart problems
Intellitronics, from the Ukraine, offering a mobile e-health system designed to monitor multiple patients in real time
iSee, from China, offering a networked learning system for the blind that incorporates speech synthesis and Braille displays
PARV, from Oklahoma, whose "ASHA (A reciprocative System for Health Automation)" is a medicine vending machine that includes speech assistance
Wafree, from Korea, whose project is designed to help people breed stag beetles -- as food!
The twenty finalist teams in the Embedded Development competition were selected out of approximately 400 teams who originally applied for the contest. Of these, about 150 teams advanced to the second round, receiving Windows CE 6.0 R2 and Visual Studio 2005 Professional, along with DM&P's eBox-4300 (right), a compact PC that includes a 500MHz Via Eden processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, and a Type II/II CompactFlash slot. Teams were free to add equipment or additional software, but use of Windows CE and the eBox was a required element in the competition.
Other categories in the competition
The eight other categories in the Imagine Cup competition are:
Software Design, where students create real-world software and services applications that use Microsoft tools and technology, such as the .NET Framework and Microsoft Windows
Game Development, where students create a new game that uses Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Microsoft Visual Studio
Robotics and Algorithm, where students must navigate a series of brainteasers, code challenges and algorithmic puzzles
IT Challenge, where students are challenged to develop, deploy and maintain IT systems that are elegant, functional, robust and secure
MashUp, where students are challenged to create a new and useful Web 2.0 application using Microsoft's PopFly site
Photography, where students communicate a story that "explores a critical issue through a photo essay of inspiring still images"
Short Film, where students create an original short film and also "demonstrate excellence in filmmaking at all levels"
Design, where students create an innovative design for easier-to-use machines that help improve human interactions
Prizes for Imagine Cup 2009 will total more than $180,000 across the nine event categories, Microsoft says. Given other expenses such as air fares, accommodations, hardware giveaways, and employee salaries, it's easy to imagine the event costing the company at least a quarter of a million dollars overall -- a laudable investment in difficult economic times.
Meantime, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced in April that Poland will be the venue for the 2010 Imagine Cup. Signaling that the event will continue despite difficult economic times, he stated, "Some of the greatest innovations and companies of tomorrow will be created by today's students. The Imagine Cup presents a fantastic opportunity for them to compete."
In addition to the Imagine Cup competition for students, Microsoft offers the Sparks Will Fly Contest, open to anyone except full-time Microsoft employees. Launched in October of last year, the 2009 version of the contest asked competitors to dream up Windows CE-based devices they'd like to see in the home of the future. For details of the winning devices, which were presented earlier this year at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose, see our earlier coverage, here.
Further information
The three winning teams in the Embedded Development category of Microsoft's Imagine Cup, as well as the winners in the eight other categories, will be announced tomorrow morning in a ceremony at the Great Pyramid of Giza near Cairo.
For more details of Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2009 and Imagine Cup 2010 student contests, see the company's website, here. Information specifically about the Embedded Development category may be found here.
Microsoft is also providing updates via a Twitter feed, here, and Facebook fan site, here.
In the first video, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie welcomes the student teams to Cairo, noting that the Imagine Cup featured 444 students, 149 times, and 70 different countries, and stating, "What you've accomplished here is nothing short of amazing to me." In the second video, Embedded Development event captain Scott Davis (right) says, "The expectations that we have for crowning a champion are very high."
The twenty finalist teams in the Embedded Development competition were selected out of approximately 400 teams who originally applied for the contest. Of these, about 150 teams advanced to the second round, receiving Windows CE 6.0 R2 and Visual Studio 2005 Professional, along with DM&P's eBox-4300 (right), a compact PC that includes a 500MHz Via Eden processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, and a Type II/II CompactFlash slot. Teams were free to add equipment or additional software, but use of Windows CE and the eBox was a required element in the competition.
