| Microsoft ups the ante in 2008 student competition |
Sep. 28, 2007
 Microsoft has released new details of its Imagine Cup 2008 student competition, which is now officially under way. To encourage entries in the Embedded Development category, cash prizes have been doubled from a total of $15,000 to $30,000, the company says.
To be held in Paris from July 1-8, 2008, the event marks the sixth year of the Imagine Cup competition. The overall theme "calls on calling on young programmers, artists and technologists around the world to imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment," according to Microsoft.
The Embedded Development section of the competition has replaced Microsoft's previously-run Windows Embedded Student ChallengE. In the present event, teams of three or four competitors and a faculty mentor are required to build a working prototype of a device that would have an impact on "solving some of our world's toughest problems."
In the first round of the competition, which began this month and ends Feb. 1, 2008, teams will present their ideas in written form. In the second round, according to the Microsoft, up to 200 teams will receive Microsoft-supplied hardware on which to implement their projects.
Ebox-2300
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Changes to the hardware for 2008, if any, have not been announced. For the Embedded Development section of the Imagine Cup 2007, competitors used an eBox-2300 (depicted at right) together with Windows CE 6.0. The eBox is a compact, minimally configured "embedded PC," to which teams were free to add appropriate peripherals.
Microsoft says six teams will advance to the finals in France, receiving free travel and accommodations. The first prize winners will receive $15,000, second place $10,000, and third place $5,000. As noted, these figures double the total dollars awarded this year, where the corresponding dollar amounts were $8,000, $4,000, and $3,000 (third prize).
In addition to the Embedded Development section of the Imagine Cup, there are eight other categories: Software Design, Game Development, Project Hoshimi (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film, and Interface Design. The Imagine Cup 2007 competition had a Web development category, which the game development category has now replaced.
2007 winners
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The first prize winner in 2007 was Team "Trivent Dreams - ED" from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. Its project, known as e-du box, was "inspired by the fact that one fifth of the world's population is illiterate." Designed to be a low-cost device for education and entertainment, the e-du box has a user interface based on a virtual notebook metaphor (see right) and connects to an ordinary TV set. Its primary input device is a vibrating Bluetooth mouse/pen custom-designed by the team. Bluetooth is also used to let teachers monitor multiple e-du boxes from a Windows Vista sidebar gadget.
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The second prize was won in 2007 by Team "Aether" from the University of Iasi in Romania. Its project called the Networked Braille Learning Environment was designed to make learning Braille simpler and cheaper. A single-character tactile device is attached to a student's finger; as characters are formed, the student receives audio feedback. The eBox is used for the front-end application, hosting the Braille lessons which will send characters to students. The team developed its own PCB for the tactile display, which communicates wirelessly with the eBox using the Zigbee (802.15.4) standard.
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The third place winner for 2007 was team "Seed" from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China. Its project, "CasBam," is designed to help children with DSI (Dysfunction of Sensory Information). The system automates some of the physical therapy required, using equipment such as a rotating chair, a pressure sensor, and 3-D glasses. Each child's progress is tracked using RFID, via a tag worn inside a Mickey Mouse watch. A distributed architecture links together multiple kindergartens, each with its own eBox, to a central database server.
Further information
For more information on winners and finalists in last year's competition, see our earlier coverage of the Imagine Cup 2007 Embedded Development section winners. To track the progress of Imagine Cup 2008 entrants, visit the we site Microsoft has dedicated to the Embedded Development section, which includes online forums, here.
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