Meet The Imagine Cup Grants Winners

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

The 4 winning teams of first ever Imagine Cup Grants was announced on Microsoft Citizenship Blog. The winners were in Davos to meet with Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates and to participate in a roundtable discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing young people today. The Imagine Cup Grants program is a three-year, $3 million competitive grant program to help Imagine Cup participants take their ideas and their projects and transform them into a business or nonprofit that can bring the benefit of their technology to the communities that need it most.

Here’s some more about the four winning teams:

 

Team Apptenders (Croatia)

Project Name:  KiDnect

Team Members: Ivan Antonic, Ivan Borko, Karmela Bresan, Dominik Tomicevic

KiDnect is a Kinect-based solution for on-premise and remote physical therapy for children, especially those born with Cerebral Palsy. This software has the ability to monitor a child’s exercises to ensure they are being completed correctly, and then provides statistical analysis to the therapist. Team Apptenders hopes to add multilingual interfaces in order to integrate additional sensors for limb rotation monitoring and advanced data analysis.

 

Team Falcon Dev (Ecuador)

Project Name: SkillBox

Team Members: José Vicente Anilema Guadalupe, Gerardo Francisco Pérez Layedra, Henry Javier Paca Quinaluiza, Juan José Morales Ruiz

SkillBox is an affordable solution to help children who are hearing impaired by translating all audio received from a teacher in a classroom into sign language. A wireless headset captures the sound, sends it to the computer and SkillBox then shows the corresponding sign for the word or phrase. Team Falcon Dev hopes to take their first step in making SkillBox available to children by selling their technology solution to public schools in Ecuador.

 

Team OaSys (Jordan)

Project Name: Horizon

Team Members: Hani AbuHuwaij, Mohammad Azzam, Monir Abu Hilal, Mohammad Saleh, Yousef Wadi

Horizon is a software and hardware system that allows people who do not have use of their hands/arms to use a computer. Specifically, it tracks head movements and translates these movements into mouse movements. Users get full control of a computer and a cellphone, and can browse the internet, type and connect with ease and at a low cost. Team OaSys hopes to improve the software stack by optimizing and adding features, pilot client lab preparations and hire sub-contractors.

 

Team LifeLens (United States)

Project Name: LifeLens

Team Members: Tristan Gibeau, Cy Khormaee, Wilson To, Jason Wakizaka, Helena Xu

Lifelens is an innovative point-of-care tool to diagnose malaria using an augmented Windows Phone application. The project addresses the unacceptably high child mortality rates caused by the lack of detection and availability of treatment of malarial diseases. Team Lifelens is ready to develop their project for launch. They will use the investment for distribution of their devices, subsidizing the phones and field testing.

 

Full story: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoftupblog/archive/2012/01/27/meet-the-imagine-cup-students-turned-social-entrepreneurs.aspx 

 

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Everyone Deserves To Enjoy Playing Game

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

Computer or console gaming is fun and everyone deserves to enjoy the fun of playing the game including people with disabilities. I’m very lucky to meet Mark Barlet (Co-founder & President of the AbleGamers Foundation) during the Microsoft Accelerating Asia Pacific at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he bring all different kind of controller devices for Xbox 360 all the way from US to showcase how people with disabilities can enjoy playing game just like anyone else.

As long as you are still alive and breathing, no matter what disabilities you have, there will be a custom made controller device for you to play the game on Xbox 360. I personally try out the controller myself. It is very simple. I can play a racing game with just 2 or 3 fingers only. Well, the easy level of car racing game might look too simple for a hard core gamer, but gaming is purely for the sake of fun here. There are also many other controllers showcase there like controller control by mouth, only left hand or only right hand and many more. All controllers are specially designed for certain disabilities. Of course, Microsoft Kinect with Fruit Ninja game is showcase there too, just swing your hand and cut the fruits!

The Microsoft Accelerating Asia Pacific summit is a media and analyst gathering focused on showcasing how Microsoft, through technology and partnerships, is making a real and positive impact in Asia. One of the objectives is to showcase how Microsoft accessible technology can help improve the living of people with certain disabilities. I’m very impressed with all the guests invited to share their experience on how accessible technology can help them. For example like Tan Siew Ling from Microsoft citizenship share her experience on how those small little features that Microsoft build into operating system like Narrator which help her get connected with everyone in the world through Internet.

With just software alone is not enough, we also need hardware to help. One of the panel discussion invited Mark Barlet, Doojin Choi (Executive Director, National Information Society Agency) and Dr. Young-il Kim (Director, The National Library Support Center for Individuals with Disabilities) to discuss on “Accessibility Principles In Hardware Design”. Yes, we definably need all those hardware to enhance the information and communication technology experience especially for people with disabilities. Not just for the purpose of getting the job done in work, but for the fun of gaming as well.

by Ooi Keng Siang via Ooiks’s Blog

15 Teams Shortlisted in Imagine Cup Grants

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

As announced during the Award Ceremony in Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 worldwide final at New York, Microsoft will give away USD 3M grants for finalist to to kick start their idea. After the first round of filtering, the top 15 teams who successfully advanced to the next round are announced at Microsoft Citizenship’s Blog.

The top 15 team will be further reviewed by a distinguished panel of judges from multiple sectors including technology, NGO, social venture and venture capital investors on round 2. The winning teams will be named in January 2012 and awarded with a grant package in the form of cash, software, resources and other on the ground support to help them establish a nonprofit or for-profit organizations to bring their idea to market.

Below are the 15 teams from Imagine Cup 2011 that successfully enter the next round in Imagine Cup Grants application:

Team Apptenders – Croatia
KiDnect is a Kinect-based solution for on-premise and remote physical therapy for children. This software has the ability to monitor a child’s exercises to ensure they are being completed correctly, and then provides statistical analysis to the therapist. Team Apptenders hopes to add multilingual interfaces in order to integrate additional sensors for limb rotation monitoring and advanced data analysis.

Team Co2ncerned – Turkey 
Co2ncerned created a system where individuals and corporations calculate their CO2 emissions and balance it by donating to environmental projects. CO2ncerned is a common platform for environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Team Co2ncerned hopes to use support from Imagine Cup Grants to help with international connections and the licensing cost for the system requirements.

Team CodeRaiders – Poland
LifeCircle+ is a modern system solving the problems that blood centers, the people needing blood, and potential donors face on a daily basis. Using Windows Azure and Windows Phone, this platform minimizes the problem of shortages in blood centers by ensuring adequate amounts in times of emergency, and promotes the cause of blood donation via social networks. Team CodeRaiders plans to use cash prize for the further development and deployment of the LifeCircle+ solution on a global scale.

Team Cyan Girls – Senegal
PAGEL is a cloud platform designed to provide infrastructure and ecommerce support for rural farmers and fishermen. With software as a service (SAAS) combined with Windows Azure, these individuals and small businesses can better set pricing, identify markets to sell their goods and gain worldwide visibility through an online marketplace. Team Cyan Girls hopes for the opportunity to set up a company that prioritizes creativity, innovation and good results.

Team Dragon – United States
Team Dragon’s project utilizes both Windows Phone 7 and a spirometer to enable a game called Azmo the Dragon, which helps children learn about and manage their asthma by having their breath be that of a dragon that destroys civilizations. The team expanded their scope into asthma care plans: prescribed regimens for families, given by doctors to help them care for asthma and respond to different situations. Team Dragon hopes to use the entirety of the grant funding for research and development, including pilot testing, prototyping and code development.

Team Falcon Dev – Ecuador
Skillbox is an affordable solution to help children who are hearing impaired by translating all the speaking audio received from a teacher in a classroom into sign language. A wireless headset captures the sound, sends it to the computer and SkillBox then shows the corresponding sign for the word or phrase. Team Falcon Dev hopes to make their product market-ready through support from Imagine Cup Grants.

Team Gatotkaca – Indonesia
Childhood is an early alert system that helps mothers prevent malnourishment in their children. It uses personal cell phones to educate mothers about healthy diets for their children as well as child development milestones. It connects mothers with pediatricians who can suggest proper action in the instance of unusual child growth or development. Team Falcon Dev plans to invest the money to build larger infrastructure for their product.

Team Geekologic – France
People around the world often don’t realize the consequences that their negative actions have on the environment. Brainergy is a Windows Phone 7 Puzzle Game in which the player has to solve different challenges based on renewable energy. From the beginning of the adventure, players are confronted by a polluted world and will need to use renewable energy to clean it. Team Geekologic would like to use support from Imagine Cup Grants to add viral and social networking functionalities, and make it compatible with a number of different platforms.

Team Hawk – Iraq
Team Hawk developed a Windows Phone 7 application, the Refugee Application Form, that provides an instant and secure system for registering refugees and their welfare needs. It helps monitor health care and education, as well as facilitating aid distribution. The solution provides a mobile means for staff and users with minimal training to enter data relevant to the welfare and educational needs of the refugees. The data stored using Windows Azure can be accessed by the NGOs through any computing device. Team Hawk will use the entirety of the funding on the continued development of their application to make it more adaptable to various scenarios.

Team Lifelens – United States
Lifelens is an innovative point-of-care tool to diagnose malaria using an augmented Windows Phone 7 application. The project addresses the unacceptably high child mortality rates caused by the lack of detection and availability of treatment of malarial diseases. Team Lifelens is committed to using Grants support to develop their project for launch. They will use the investment for distribution of their devices, subsidizing the phones and field testing.

Team majiRanger – Germany 
With majiSolutions, a three-fold product, the current workflow of waterpointmapping is automated as far as possible and optimized in quality. With a Windows Phone 7 application, majiMobile, the data regarding water resources is captured on the spot. It is then sent directly to a server where it is processed and analyzed by the majiFramework. Finally, a Silverlight application called majiWeb, provides various visualizations and possibilities for analysis, thus, being a base for important decisions. Team majiRanger hopes to use the cash prize to carry out two piloting projects, which will help them earn their first customers, and take majiSolutions from project to product level.

Team Nerds Inc. – Nigeria
Medicare is a web-based solution that enables interaction between health workers and doctors. Through Medicare, medical details of a patient can be sent to the doctor and the resulting diagnosis and prescription are then sent back to the health workers. It educates health workers on the latest medical trends from global health organizations and government parastatals, and provides an Azure-based platform for healthcare delivery, diagnosis and prescription to remote locations. Team Nerds plans to use the cash prize to pay for cloud computing and deploy the solution in all the medical health centers in Ondo State.

Team Note-Taker – United States
The Note-Taker is a portable Windows 7-based hardware + software solution that provides low-vision students with simultaneous, magnified views of their notes and a distant board. It consists of a zoom camera attached to a laptop or tablet. Students take handwritten or typed notes in a split-screen interface on the computer and control the camera through pen and multitouch gestures. After class, students can review their notes and see any audio and video that was recorded at the time they took a particular note. If Team Note-Taker wins an Imagine Cup Grant, the cash prize will be vested into Seymour Research, LLC, for use in the design, manufacture, and marketing of the device.

Team OaSys – Jordan
Horizon is a software and hardware system that allows people who do not have use of their hands/arms to use a computer. Specifically, it tracks head movements and translates these movements into mouse movements. Users get full control of a computer and a cellphone, browse the internet, type and connect with ease and at a low cost. Team OaSys hopes to improve the software stack by optimizing and adding features, pilot client lab preparations and hire sub-contractors.

Team Signum Games – Brazil
In UCan, players create strategies to find the best way to help solve issues in their city like health, education and the environment. Players must manage their resources smartly by planting trees, training volunteers, helping others, and successfully avoiding obstacles. Team Signum Games plans to use funding from Imagine Cup Grants to pay their team to develop their solution, pay for marketing and purchase licenses.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup Grants for 2011 Finalist

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

As announced during the Award Ceremony in Imagine Cup 2011 worldwide final at New York, Microsoft will given USD 3M grants for finalist to apply in order to kick start their idea. The detail of the grants is finally announced. the grant only have limited place for finalist, thus 2 round of selection will determine which team won the grant.

The grant will judge base on:

  • Problem Definition (10%): How well does the team convey their understanding of the complexities involved in addressing the problem and, how convincing is the argument that the issue they are addressing has broad appeal and relevance
  • Impact and Viability of the Solution (40%): To what degree will the solution have an impact on the issue? Is the solution technically and economically viable? Are the timing and conditions right for this solution? Has the solution already been implemented in some way to demonstrate or test that it is viable?
  • Solution Design and Innovation (20%): Does the solution provide an innovative approach the problem? How does it surpass previous or current solutions to this problem?
  • Team Quality and Motivation (30%): What is the quality of leadership in the team? How solid is the business planning for the solution? What are the obstacles for the team to take the solution to market? How does the team intend to organize itself to accomplish its plan?

It is a great opportunity for finalist to apply and kick start their business using the grant offer by Microsoft. The grant offer the following awards to those who successfully applied the grants:

  •  A Cash grant amount depending on the grantee team’s business plan and project scope. (Estimated between $75,000 U.S. Dollars and $100,000 U.S. Dollars)
  • Software required to support the implementation of their solution. Software offerings will be determined based on the needs of the grantee’s solution and go to market plan.
  • Mentorship by a Microsoft representative in their country or region.
  • Introductions to potential funders and partners.
  • Support from Microsoft local partners.
  • Access to Microsoft resources including Microsoft Innovation Centers, premium BizSpark benefits, time and support from Microsoft employees and product groups.

For more information on Imagine Cup Grants visit: http://www.imaginecup.com/CompetitionsContent/ImagineCupGrants.aspx

Every year Microsoft surprise me with how much money and effort their put on students through Imagine Cup. I can’t think of any student competition that can beat Imagine Cup, they give free trip, prize money, news coverage, grant, hardware and many more students to make sure they create something innovative. I’m looking forward the listen to the success story of the students through the grant offer by Microsoft.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2007 – 2011 Yearbook

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

If you heard of Microsoft Imagine Cup you will probably know students use their creativity and innovation to solve the world toughest problems, those real world problems around us. In case if you just get to know about this amazing competition recently and you want to know more about what students are capable to do all this year of Imagine Cup, you can always check out their project through Imagine Cup Yearbook that was printed every year.

The Imagine Cup Yearbook is also a good resource for competitor who want to join in next year Imagine Cup 2012 at Australia. Check out what other competitor had done in the past. Bare in mind that not all ideas are unique, but is your job to make your idea better than the others. You can found the Imagine Cup yearbook since year 2007 until year 2011 at the link below.

Imagine Cup Yearbook download:

http://cid-8dcb1cd01855af44.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=8DCB1CD01855AF44!274

 

by Ooi Keng Siang (MSPSMT) via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Final – Day 6 – Awards Ceremony

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

Today is the final day of Imagine Cup 2011 at New York. All competitions were already over but there are still lot of activities waiting for the competitors today such as student learning sessions, student showcase, award ceremony and farewell party! Which team will bring home the ultimate golden trophy and golden belt? We shall found that out today.

Today we have a lot of interesting learning sessions for the competitors especially for those who is going to graduate anytime soon. For example, Take Your Imagine Cup Experiences to the Next Level, What it Takes to be a Researcher, Insider Tips for Excelling in Technical Interviews and etc. Each learning sessions will be giving out a XBox to a lucky student who attend the session.  For those students who yet to grab a XBox, today will be their last chance to grab a XBox in one of the learning sessions on the morning.

On the afternoon, we are moving from the hotel to Lincoln Center for the Student Showcase and World Festival Awards Ceremony. Student Showcase is where student showcase their project and exchange ideas with other students, judges and guests. All competitors are very initiative to share their solution to everyone while learning the idea from other competitors at the same time. Learning from each other, that is the way how the competitors improve continuously every year.

Now the most exciting and climax of Imagine Cup, the Awards Ceremony. Just like Olympic, each team is proud of the country they represent by holding the country flag on the stage. All competitors are very excited in this ceremony even before the ceremony start. Flying their own country flag and shouting for they own country name are every corner of in the hall. This year we have a very impact opening of award ceremony with 3 big screen and a performer telling the world toughest problem that are waiting to be solve. Yes, there are still many problems awaiting for the students to solve no matter what is the outcome of this competition.

We have some very interesting guests this years on the awards ceremony such as Michael R. Bloomberg (Mayor of NYC) welcoming every one of us to New York City. This is also the first time ever for Microsoft to invite Eva Longoria at Imagine Cup and she is excited to talking about Imagine Cup project created by the student on how they can help on huge disaster. Wait, we even got the Master Chief from Halo game appear out of sudden to deliver the result of Game Design and have a big picture with Game Design winner. Cool!

Microsoft continue to throw more surprise to competitors during the award ceremony to make the excitement go on and on. Walid Abu-Hadba (VP of Developer & Platform Microsoft) announced that each first place winner will get an invitation to /*build*/ conference and each finalist competitors will get a Windows Phone 7 with Mango update. While S. Somasegar (Senior Vice President, Developer Division of Microsoft) announced a 3 million USD grants open for Imagine Cup participations to apply. No matter if the competitor had won any prize tonight or not, they all are already the winner with Microsoft Kinect (announced on Day 1) and Windows Phone 7.5.

 

Enough of the talk, the result of Imagine Cup 2011 New York are…

Software Design Winning Team

  • First Place: Team Hermes (Ireland)
  • Second Place: Team Note Taker (United States)
  • Third Place: Oasys Team (Jordan)



 

Embedded Development Winning Teams

  • First Place: NTHUCS (Taiwan)
  • Second Place: Harmonicare (China)
  • Third Place: Endeavour_Design (Romania)




 

Game Design (Windows/XBox) Winning Teams

  • First Place: Signum Games (Brazil)
  • Second Place: JubJub (Thailand)
  • Third Place: WickedTeam (Czech Republic) 




 

Game Design (Web) Winning Teams

  • First Place: Cellardoor (Poland)
  • Second Place: Signum Fidei (Philippines)
  • Third Place: Quegee Team (Slovakia) 




 

Game Design (Mobile) Winning Teams

  • First Place: Geekologic (France)
  • Second Place: Close World Mobile (France)
  • Third Place: Team Dragon (United States) 




 

Digital Media Winning Teams

  • First Place: M.N.A. (Romania)
  • Second Place: Brothers Forever (Oman)
  • Third Place: Cottoncandy (Taiwan) 




 

Windows Phone 7 Winning Teams

  • First Place: HOMERUN (Korea)
  • Second Place: Zipi Zigi (Korea)
  • Third Place: The LifeLens Project (United States) 




 

IT Challenge Winning Individuals

  • First Place: Jean-Sebastien Duchene (France)
  • Second Place: Blazej Matuszyk (Poland)
  • Third Place: Yunheng Mong (Singapore) 




 

Interoperability Challenge Winning Teams

  • First Place: alaniarides (Greece)
  • Second Place: Bells Team (Brazil)
  • Third Place: DemosceneSpirit (Poland) 



 

Orchard Challenge Winning Teams

  • First Place: MP Brun (Denmark)
  • Second Place: Virtual Dreams – Orchard (Brazil)
  • Third Place: Zveen Zveen Team (Serbia) 

 

 

Windows 7 Touch Challenge Winning Teams

  • First Place: India Rose (France)
  • Second Place: _dreambender_ (Indonesia)
  • Third Place: IUVO (Japan) 

 

2011 People’s Choice Award Winning Team

  • Team Rapture (Bangladesh)

Although Imagine Cup 2011 had officially ended but this should not be the end of the journey for the competitor but the this should be the beginning of their journey to create a better world. This should not be end of the story for those who can’t made it into the final, it should be just end of a chapter and a new chapter should beginning for Imagine Cup 2012. With the Imagine Cup flag passing ceremony, Gerard Seeber (Deputy Consul General & Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Austrade) and Pip Marlow (Managing Director of Microsoft Australia) officially announce Imagine Cup 2012 will be at Australia

After the awards ceremony, all competitor are having the farewell party back at hotel. Time to throw everything about competition behind of the mind and dance! No alcoholic drink for those who under 21! The Microsoft Student Partners Social Media Team having our farewell party together with the competitors too as 25 of us will be depart and go back to our own country after that. Sorry pal, we are there to party so no photo at party for you all to see! Party go on until 2 in the morning.

I’m, gone miss all the competitors from around the world especially those team I’m keeping in charge, the 24 MSPs in Social Media Team that we had work out together every day and night through out the event, our team lead Michelle Fleming who taking good care of us, Ali, Milo and many more who I can’t mention them all here. As I said, this should not be a good bye, so let’s kick start the Imagine Cup 2012 at Australia then! Hope to see you all next year!

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Final – Day 5 – Finalist Presentation

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

After the fun Culture Day yesterday, we are back into competition again. Today we will have all the finalists of Software Design, Embedded Development and Game Design presenting their solution on the stage to the judges and it is open to all students to watch as well. They will compete for the top 3 places in each category.

Idea can be very simple, but it some can create a big impact in our world. For example Right!! This Way created by NTHUCS from Taiwan that can guide people safety get out of the building during fire emergency. Come to think about this, who really know which route is safe without any burning fire or smoke by using only the simple “Exit” sign board right? This is one of the many problems around us that exist for a long time yet we didn’t really realize it. I love the way they stress that, this is a life saving business and they are saving life! Good said!

The Note-Taker solution developed by Note-Taker from United State was simply so cool. Helping student with visual problems to take note while it is a green solution that can help to save paper at the same time. The tool is proven very useful by the developers themselves as one of the team member is facing visual problem during his study. Even myself who don’t have any visual problem, I don’t mind to get help from that tool to assist me in note taking because it is simply easy to use and amazing.

I always have a very hard feeling watching how people without their arms using a stick or eye blink to control the PC. It is a very tedious task that require a lot of patient. But my mind was complete blow away by the Mind Touch solution developed by Care Everyone from China.  The solution to control computer with their head and voice.  This is what they really need! Low cost but it has high impact on those disability peoples’ life. I really glad to see such solution that can help disability people to get back their own normal life.

If you think that the game created by student is usually simple and easy, then you are very wrong. The 3D graphic and gameplay in FireFighters: Whatever It Takes designed by WickedTeam from Czech Republic is really up to the standard of commercial product. It is a strategy game with the mission to save the jungle and life during wide fire. I’m really impress with their jaw dropping 3d graphic and effect.

I love the cute character in Hilomi designed by Close World Mobile from France. The character was a cute little girl that go on an adventure. They only use image with the cute little girl to tell the story of the game during their presentation which I think it is very interesting to keep me continue to watch what will happen on the little girl next. I do hope if I can try the game on my own mobile phone in coming future.

There are just too many great games and solutions developed by students which is impossible for me to mention one by one here. You can always check out the other 24 Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Social Media Team on the story of other team. All 25 MSPs who bring all the updates on the social media are having a little rest on this afternoon where 25 of us went out for lunch together with Michelle Fleming who lead us all the way in Imagine Cup. I’m so glad to be part of the team and I’m really happy to work with the other 24 MSPs and Michelle to bring all the news and update on social media to let more people know about Imagine Cup and inspiring more students to change the world at the same time.

Tomorrow will be the last day of Imagine Cup and we shall know who is the best out of the best during World Festival Awards Ceremony which will be at Lincoln Center. Before that, we also have a series of learning sessions going on the morning and public showcase of students’ project too. Let’s have all the fun tomorrow before we said good bye to everyone.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Final – Day 4 – Culture Day

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

OK, enough of competition and all the stress. Imagine Cup is not just about competition, but it is also for students to have fun. We have something really interesting going this year as we have student citizenship activity for students to participate. Is time to get the student out from their computers and work out something really meaningful to help the community without the computer!

(I will let the photo to tell the story in this post)

Students are building and painting rack while some other students are painting art. The best part of this event is, we are having all those activities at Centre Park of New York City. Finally we can go out of the hotel and have some activities surrendered with green! This is also a great chances for student to meet new friends from other countries and work out the same piece of project. Aren’t this is so meaningful where students can gather together and do some thing great regardless of races, culture and background.

After that, students will be on a culture tour around New York City to learn more about the culture and history of New York City. Students have 3 choice for the city tour as it is impossible to cover the whole New York City within one day. They can choose South New York City Tour, Manhattan Walking Tour or Centre Park Tour. Each bus of students is lead by a professional tour guide that explain the culture and history of New York City as the tour go on.

All tours will end up going taking ferry to Liberty Island to watch The Statue of Liberty which is the icon of United State and New York. The whole island is fully booked by Imagine Cup! How cool is that? This is the day where the student can enjoy the most as they can left all competition stuffs behind and have fun, taking photo and exploring New York.

The day end with a barbecue dinner at Ellis Island. We also have a student group photo where all students came together and take a big family photo. Tomorrow we will have the finalist presentation on the stage! They are the best out of the best team in the category. I’m looking forward to see what kind of mind blowing solutions and superior presentations given by the students.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Final – Day 3 – Competition Continue

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

The competition continue on day 3 of Imagine Cup 2011 at New York. Today we have a lot of activities going on around. The top 15 teams compete in second round of Embedded Development, top 18 teams compete in second round of Software Design, hand-on time for judges on Game Design, Windows Phone 7 competition and Interoperability Challenge competition while IT Challenge and Digital Media is going on.

The second round of Software Design and Embedded Development will be harder than first round as they will not have 6 judges instead of 4. I had a chance to sit in listen to the presentation of Team Cyber Knightz from Malaysia in Software Design and Team MACARA from Indonesia in Embedded Development, they are doing a great job impressing the judges with their solution. Be sure to check out Team Cyber Knightz story and Team MACARA story and vote for team in the People’s Choice Award if you like their projects.

How can you know a game is interesting or not without playing right? So judges for Game Design will have their time playing on the game designed by the competitors. They are enjoying it as if they are not here to give mark to the project but as a gamer who enjoying the game. All the fun laughing and satisfying face of the judges all over in the showcase hall. I’m going to get myself hand on those great games when the showcase is open!

Other then just competition, we also have a long list of learning sessions for students to learn about the latest technologies of Microsoft and startup information. To make the learning sessions even more exciting, Microsoft Imagine Cup will give away a XBox to a lucky student who attended the session in each of the session!

  • Building Apps for Windows Mobile 7
  • Internet Explorer 9: A More Beautiful Web
  • Windows Embedded and the Internet of Things: Opportunities for Tomorrow
  • Windows Azure: To the Cloud!
  • Learn how to apply for major grants from USAID for your ideas to solve the world’s toughest problems
  • Come discover Windows Embedded! Demos only!
  • Kinect App-a-Thon

Imagine Cup is a place where students can show the world what they had come out. Press around the world will be attending this great event and learn about the great projects that created by the students. The student really impress us with their great ideas and solutions like Japan Team in Embedded Development has amaze me with their solution call Sun Donation where it allow user to donate money without paying a single sen. Just by watching the video and I donating money to those who need it, sound amazing right! Too bad as I’m only have limited time else I would like to pay each booth a visit and listen to their stories and projects in detail.

After all the tough competition running on the afternoon, the result of the finalist in Software Design, Embedded Development and Game Design (Mobile, Web, XNA / Windows) were announced. Students were exciting as usual and singing their own country song with their country flag in hand! Each team was proud of the country they represent! Aren’t this look like an Olympic? Without any sport of course!

The finalist are:

Software Design (Finalist)

  • China, Care Everyone
  • Ireland, Team Hermes
  • Jordan, OaSys
  • New Zealand, OneBuzz
  • Romania, SIMPLEX
  • United States, Team Note-Taker

Embedded Development (Finalist)

  • Brazil, Embedded Brain
  • China, Harmonicare
  • France, Give Me 4
  • Romania, Endeavour_Design
  • Taiwan, NTHUCS
  • United Kingdom, Cycling into trees

Game Design – Mobile (Finalist)

  • France, Close World Mobile
  • France, Geekologic
  • US, Team Dragon

Game Design – Web (Finalist)

  • Philippines, Signum Fidei
  • Poland, Cellardoor
  • Slovakia, Quegee Team

Game Design – XNA/Windows

  • Brazil, Signum Games
  • Czech Republic, WickedTeam
  • Thailand, JubJub Team

Congratulation to all teams that successfully enter the finalist, but they need to rehearse tomorrow for the final presentation while all other teams can go out and fully enjoy culture day made by Imagine Cup. Imagine Cup is not only just about competition and technologies talk only, culture day is a day where students around the world can learn about the culture and history of the hosted country, which is a very meaningful activity. Let’s fully enjoy tomorrow culture day and left the competition aside first!

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Final – Day 2 – Competition Begin

Posted on by Ooi Keng Siang

Today is the judgment day! The day begin with briefing for the student about the competition that will be running today and activity that we are going to have in the next few days at New York City. We have Lisa Harper (Imagine Cup Worldwide Competition Manager), Suzi LeVine (PR), Chris Yates (Security) and Walid (the big boss) on the stage to brief all the competitors.

We had judges around the world to sit in and watch the great solution bring by students in Software Design, Embedded Development and Game Design. IT Challenge and Digital Media will be running all day long, student need to compete with others and the time to make sure they complete their task in the given time. Competition for Windows Phone 7  and Interoperability Challenge will be kick start tomorrow instead. This is going to be a busy and exciting day for everyone.

Although I know lot of competitors stay up late last night for today presentation preparation, but all of them are excited and ready to give all judges a big bang of what they have. Being part of the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Social Media Team give  the chances to watch all those great and amazing solution developed by the students first hand. The judges were impressed about the student creativity and so am I. They are just so great! Well, after all their are the best in their country that why they represent their country to the worldwide final.

Check out Team MACARA, Team Gototkaca, Team Cyber Knightz and Team NewKrean action on their presentation from the photo. They are doing a very great job and judge are impressed with their project. I’m not going to tell you what great project the student made here, but you can check out their projects at People’s Choice Award and make sure you vote for them if you like their project. Just 2 more days left, better be hungry if you want to support them. Imagine Cup is not only about competition, we also have fun time like Xbox 360 and XBox Kinect ready for students to play.

After all the tough competition, the result of the teams that advanced to second round of Software Design and Embedded Development will be announce at night. While waiting for the judges to sort out the result, the competitors are so excited. They bring their own flag, sing their country’s song, shouting their country name, hooping around and many more! That is the Imagine Cup spirit!

For even better, Lisa announced that Microsoft is giving out XBox 360 as the lucky draw on the section of Kinect App-a-Thon that will be happen tomorrow. More good stuff for the student ya. How I wish I’m a competitor this year! I’m so envy them!

The judges are sure having a hard time deciding which teams success enter the next round as they are taking more time then expected. But at last, 15 Teams of Embedded Development and 18 Team of Software Design will announced on the stage. Check out the list below to know who they are:

Embedded Development (15 teams)

  • Brazil, Embedded Brain
  • China, Harmonicare
  • Colombia, Freakin’ Mind
  • Egypt, ideas 4 u
  • France, Give Me 4
  • India, Drushti
  • Indonesia, MACARA
  • Poland, WCY_TEAM
  • Romania, Endeavour_Design
  • Russia, Calvus
  • Singapore, Skynet
  • Spain, Argitech
  • Taiwan, N THUCS,
  • United Kingdom, Cycling into trees
  • United States, Syntax Errors

Software Design (18 teams)

  • Brazil, LevelUP
  • Chile, Lifeware S.A.C.
  • China, Care Everyone
  • Croatia, apptenders
  • Czech Republic, Celebrio Software
  • Finland, Team 25k
  • India, Infiniti
  • Ireland, Team Hermes
  • Jordan, OaSys
  • Malaysia, Team Cyber Knightz
  • Morocco , White Light
  • New Zealand, OneBuzz
  • Romania, SIMPLEX
  • Russia, OriTeam
  • Slovakia, Zippers
  • Slovenia, 2ndSight
  • Ukraine, DashPoint
  • United States, Team Note-Taker

For those teams won’t can made into the second round, don’t give up now as you all have came so far and you represent the best of your own country. All finalist are the winner of this competition. this should be the beginning of the journey to create a better tomorrow and not the end of the journey.

Competition for Windows Phone 7 and  Interoperability Challenge will be kick start tomorrow, as well as second round of Software Design presentation and Embedded Development presentation. IT Challenge and Digital Media are still going on now. We also got a lot of learning sessions including Kinect App-a-Thon that are going to happen tomorrow. So stay tune on my Blog or Twitter, or check out the official Imagine Cup’s Twitter for the most latest update.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog