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        Student competition offers a different kind of fireworks

        Jonathan Angel | Date: Jul 2, 2009 | Comments: 1


        While most people in the United States are knocking off for three days to celebrate Independence Day, the judges and contestants in Microsoft's Imagine Cup won't be. The student competition kicks off tomorrow in Cairo, Egypt, and runs through Tuesday -- when winners will be announced.



        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." The twenty winning teams, listed below, are even now making their way to Cairo, where they'll present their devices, competing for a $25,000 first place prize, $10,000 second place prize, and $5,000 third place prize.

        According to Microsoft, the twenty Imagine Cup Embedded Development finalists are as follows, listed by team name:
        • AST, from Turkey, whose "ProFarming" project is intended as an upgrade to present-day farming machinery

        • Bamboo and Papyrus, from Canada, whose "Project Grow" is intended to automate greenhouses

        • Bdpq, from Romania, which offers an "intelligent wireless distributed system" for monitoring and analyzing power consumption

        • Brainy Brownie and the marvelous thinker threats, from Mexico, whose "Hygea" project is intended to automate treatment of heart problems

        • CLFS, from Japan, which has created an "Electronic Maternal and Child Health Handbook"

        • ESIEArk, from France, whose S.W.E.E.T (Smart Wheelchair with Embedded Electronic Technology) is a wheelchair with added GPS/GSM and an electronic climbing system

        • Infusion, from Singapore, offering a "Wireless-enabled patient-controlled analgesia system"

        • 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

        • IT Wizkids, from India, which has created a system of wireless kiosks designed to distribute information to the needy regarding grants and other assistance

        • Krejzi Dzepetto, from Poland (no information on project provided)

        • MedBox, from Egypt, whose eponymous project is designed to prevent mistakes and equipment malfunctions in hospitals

        • Open Lab, from Brazil, whose "Mobile Collaborative Laboratory for Learning" integrates a computer, camera, and projector

        • PARV, from Oklahoma, whose "ASHA (A reciprocative System for Health Automation)" is a medicine vending machine that includes speech assistance

        • Pendekar Asyik, from Indonesia, offering a device designed to help locate fishing grounds

        • SAS-EN, from Sri Lanka, whose "Self-Controlling Intelligent Plant" is designed to make hydroponics more convenient

        • SEEDS, from Taiwan, whose "Solar Energy-based Embedded Distributed Server" is a solar-powered cache designed to reduce the power consumption of server farms

        • Sound Streamers, from Russia, whose "ExoStream" project involves wireless audio streaming

        • uUH, from the United Kingdom, whose "InterHome" project was not detailed

        • 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

        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.

        In addition, Windows Embedded team member Olivier Bloch, who will be one of the judges for the Embedded Development section of the competition, is providing ongoing updates on his blog. For more information, see here.


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