Imagine Cup Video Marking

Hull University Campus of an evening. Nice eh?

This time next week I’ll be on my way to Poland, and the Imagine Cup World Finals. Great stuff. By way of a taster I went through the video entries that I was judging as part of the first round of the competition. There were some excellent projects in there, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what else the the students have made. If you want to take a look at the videos yourself, you can find them on the Imagine Cup Website. http://imaginecup.com/default.aspx.

If you are thinking of taking part next year (and you really, really should be) then looking at these entries is a great way to get a feel for the the way the competition works.

Hull Imagine Cup Success

The “Instinctive Input” team show off their certificates. If you look really closely you will see that they are all individually signed by Bill Gates. Well done folks.

We didn’t win, but one of the two teams we sent down to compete in the UK Imagine Cup Finals came a creditable third place. Many congratulations to the “Instinctive Input” team who took there eye tracking system down to Reading, hardware demonstration and all, and managed to put on a great show by all accounts. 

Congratulations to the Outcry team as well, who also got a finalist place. I’m really pleased that Hull managed to get two teams into the UK finals for the Software Development Challenge, this must make Hull the most successful entrant in the UK competition.

The teams had a great time down at Microsoft UK Headquarters. They saw demos of the latest technology and presentations from UK Game Development houses. Great stuff. I’ll have some more pictures and team details next week.

For Hull the Imagine Cup story is not quite over though. Christophe and Daniel found out earlier this week that they have made it through to the next round of the Game Development competition.

Imagine Cup UK Finals

Matthew came to see me today, he is a member one of our Imagine Cup teams who are travelling to Microsoft UK on Thursday for the UK finals. Of the six top teams Hull have two, which is nice. Both of our teams are limbering up for the event and have some nice demonstrations and stories to tell.

Update on 2010-04-14 13:31 by Rob

I’ve asked the teams to take a bunch of pictures, and I’ve also told them to take some business cards to dish out to Microsoft people and the judges.  For me the competition is as much about the contacts and friendships that you make and the experience of taking part as it is about the prizes. Just one day now...

Windows Phone Imagine Cup Competition

Oh to be young again. Students writing XNA or Sliverlight programs (including ones in the First Year at Hull who are turning out very good looking games for their coursework) can now take part in a development competition which is part of the Imagine Cup. The closing date is 24th May, which gives you plenty of time to work up something special. All the entrants who make it to the World Finals in Poland will get a Windows Phone. Lucky people.

Find out more here:

I wonder if they want any help with the judging….

Imagine Cup Pressure

Christophe and Daniel operating under extreme pressure in my office..

Yesterday night two of our first year students just managed to get their Imagine Cup Game Development entries submitted for round 1 of the competition. This process wasn’t helped by me getting the submission date wrong, and telling them they had more time than there actually was….

Anyhoo, the games are in and now we have to wait to find out if we have made it to round two.

Imagine Cup Game Development Competition Entries Close on Monday

The title says it all really. I had got it into my head that we had until the end of the month to get our entries together. Cue some meetings today to take a look at what we have and plan a weekends of frantic coding…

If you want to get your entries in, head over to here to register and get involved.

Microsoft Inspiration Tour with Andy Sithers

One of the people in this picture is a Microsoft employee. See if you can spot him. Clue: He has his eyes shut….

..and in case the other side of the room were feeling left out…

Andy Sithers from Microsoft came to see us today. We  all went for a meal in Staff House, had a quick meeting with the Imagine Cup teams to discuss their entries (looking good people) and then he gave a presentation as part of the Inspiration Tour. Great fun.  He dished out some hoodies and T shirts as prizes and then left me with some which I’m going to give the team that comes up with the best looking game idea to enter into the Game Design Challenge for the Imagine Cup.  One of the hoodies that was left is XL, i.e. my size. Better get those ideas in before the end of the month folks, or I’ll have something new to wear…

Andy Sithers from Microsoft Coming to Hull

Andy Sithers from Microsoft (the one in the front with the biggest brush) is coming up from Reading to see us next week.

He will be giving a presentation on Microsoft Technologies and talking about the Imagine Cup. And he might dish out a few freebies.

The presentation will take place on Wed. 3rd Feb at 2:15 pm in LTA in the Robert Blackburn Building. If you are up in Hull it is well worth the trip.

Imagine Cup Live Meeting Fun

Well, I did my Imagine Cup Live Meeting today. Just me sitting on my own in my little room with a headset on, talking to students all round the world who must have got up early/stayed up late to find out how to succeed in the Imagine Cup Software Development challenge.

It all seemed to go OK, although it is a bit un-nerving when you are just speaking out into the void with no feedback other than a set of coloured indicators showing how happy the audience is. I knew that green was good, and red was bad, but when a couple of lights turned blue I had completely forgotten what that meant. I thought it was either “Speak more slowly or speak more loudly” and so I solved the problem by SPEAKING SLOWLY AND LOUDLY for a while until the lights went green again.  Actually, I’ve just thought some more. Blue could mean “speak more quietly” or  “speak more quickly”. Oh well.

If you were in the audience, thanks for turning up, I hope we managed to answer all your questions. I think my finest moment was when somebody asked “How many countries are in the Imagine Cup?” and I finally managed to come up with “All of them”. Actually, as Matt informed me a second after that, the real answer is 70.

If you have any other questions that sprang out of the presentation you can post them in the forums, which you can find here:

http://imaginecup.com/forums/18.aspx

When the presentation had finished I left my microphone switched on for a few minutes, which meant that the assembled multitude were treated to the sound of my heavy breathing for a while. Sorry about that.

Imagine Cup Software Design at the Captain’s Table

You might not know this, but I’m the Captain of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Development competition this year.

No. I don’t get a special hat. Or a uniform. I did ask though…

What I do is make sure that from a judging point of view everything lines up, competitors know what to do, how to enter, and how to make the best entries.  As part of this I’m taking part in a Live Meeting later this week where I’m going to go through the Software Development Challenge, how the competition works and what the judges are looking for. If you are preparing an entry for the competition (or thinking about taking part) it would be well worth you turning up. You can find out more here:

http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=37

Yet More Hull Imagine Cup Success

Last snow picture for a while. actually taken on Friday on the way to fetch the Fish and Chips (note capitals) for tea.

The Imagine Cup is a programming competition run by Microsoft. We at Hull are quite good at taking part. Last Friday the six teams that have made it to the UK finals were announced, and two of them come from our university. Well done folks. We'll have team details and what they are up to later this month, when the students come back and we start up the new semester.

In the meantime, if you want to take part in the competition, do your bit for charity and cost Microsoft some money (and who doesn’t) you can still sign up for the other competitions at the UK Imagine Cup web site. Microsoft have pledged a pound to charity for everyone who gets involved.

Imagine Cup Entries Powered by Uncle Joes Mint Balls

We sent off our our Imagine Cup Software Development competition entries today. Last day of the submissions, just before the deadline. Well, this is a student competition…. We haven’t sent in any Game Development entries yet, mainly because the deadline isn’t until next year.

We had a meeting earlier this week to finalise the entries and get things sorted. As a motivational aid I brought along a tin of Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls. There are a fantastic mint powered confection that have a great flavour and a wonderful inconsistency. Some are just sweet, some have just a hint of mint and some have loads. Very nice, and you can now get them at local stores (previously we used to go to Whitby to buy them). We even noticed last week in London that they had them in Harvey Nichols food hall. Very posh.

Anyhoo, I’m not sure if we are going to make the UK finals again this year (the list of finalists comes out early next year)  but you never know.

Imagine Cup Presentation

I’ve seen some things in my time. No, really. Now I’ve also seen an awards ceremony in the shadow of the pyramids. I’m not sure that the pharaohs, as they laid their plans for their final resting places, were also thinking “And you know what? This would be a great place to hold a the awards ceremony of the Imagine Cup in a few thousand years….”. Either way it worked.

When we arrived the sun was just going down.

Postcard Shot

The Backdrop

The stage

The winners of the Software Development Challenge, Romania, with second placed Russia and third placed Brazil. I helped judge these, all worthy entrants – well done folks!

A whole bunch of happy people.

The Imagine Cup has been, as ever, amazing. The venue, the events, the attention to detail. And, of course, the students. Thanks to Microsoft for making it possible, making it work, and letting me come along.

Park for Tea

After the visit to the pyramids it was back to the hotel to freshen up, and then out again to a park near The Citadel. We arrived just as the sun was setting, which was rather nice.

On the way in they had these chaps in whirly skirts to welcome us.

The view of the sunset was rather nice.

A nice place to have tea

Pretty flower.

Then, back home to bed. It is the desert finals tomorrow in front of the pyramids. Can’t wait.

Pyramids

I’ve been told that however much you prepare for the experience, seeing the pyramids for the first time will blow you away. And it does.

The first glimpse

They really are impressive. Close up they are beyond huge, and when you reflect who made them, and how, you just get even more impressed.

Not small

The key is 52 degrees apparently. Anything else falls down.

Antiquities Police

Obligatory tourist shot

Finals Time

Today we did the final presentations. For me that meant sitting with the distinguished judges and watching six presentations, and then coming up with the top three. Before I did that I thought I’d watch some of the other finals, starting with Game Development. They have set up mini-studios and are projecting the presentations into halls around the complex.

This is the UK team beginning their presentation. Good job guys.

In the afternoon it was me and the other judges in the mini-studio, and an assembled multitude outside hearing me ask my, hopefully not stupid, questions. After that it was time for judgely deliberations.

  

Posh food in the judges room.

After that it was a walk back to the room to get ready for the evening meal.

How not to photograph a mirror.

The meal was at the top floor of the shopping centre next door, which is huge.

Sitting down together.

You could also go outside to take in the views of the city at night.

This is part of the hotel complex.

Then it was home for an early night. Tomorrow we are leaving at 7:30 am for the pyramids, and I don’t want to miss that.

Judgement Day at the Imagine Cup

Today was the first round of judging in the Software Development competition here in Cairo. All the judges had to be formed into groups and then sent out to watch presentations from the 68 or so teams from all over the world. Each team had to give a 20 minute presentation, with 10 minutes after that set aside for questions. Then we had to note down some comments, grade the work, hand the judging sheet in and repeat. This made for rather an intense time, but I really like watching students strut their stuff, and so for me it was great fun.

I even took on a bit of overtime, by helping out with the judging in the Imagine Cup Interoperability. Then, after all of this, a list of the top 12 teams out was assembled, and each of them had to repeat their presentations in front of more judges so that we could arrive at the top six for the finals tomorrow.

Joe Wilson announced the finalists for all the categories, and it was particularly nice for me because the UK made it into the next round for both Software Development and the Game Development competitions.

Joe with some of the finalists.

After the judging we all staggered back to our rooms and collapsed. I’ve got some more to do tomorrow, as I’m also one of the distinguished judges for the Software Development final, which should be fun.

Imagine Cup Open for Business

Today the Imagine Cup 2009 started properly. I've been involved with this competition for a very long time, since computers filled entire rooms, and were programmed using punched cards.

Actually no. But I did attend the first World Final in 2003. Lots of things have changed since them of course. The competition has gone from 14 teams to 70, and it now takes on many forms with strands involving such things as robotics, embedded, photography and short film.  My favourite part has always been the original contest, which is the Software Development one. Nowadays I'm involved as a judge, as well as promoting the competition to students back at Hull, and I really love taking part and seeing just what enthusiastic people can do with technology.

Tomorrow is when all the judging actually starts, but today we had the opening ceremony which took place at the citadel in Cairo. We even had Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Technology officer give a presentation to the students, which was a great thing to see. That the guy who took over from Bill Gates reckons the competition is worth taking seriously is an indication of just how important Microsoft takes this contest. I took a camera a long (of course) and got a few pictures.

Outside the Citadel

 Inside the Citadel

The ceiling is fantastic

Joe Wilson gets things started.

The view on the way out.

Going for my Jabs

I’m off to Egypt in a couple of weeks for the Imagine Cup World Finals. I’m really looking forward to it, but before I start to pack my bags I have to make sure that I’m up to date with all the injections that I’ll need.

Today I wandered over to the Health Centre and filled in a form saying where I’m going and what I’m doing, and they’ve called me back on Friday for some injections. If I see a tanker parked outside the surgery when I turn up, I’m not going in…

A Short Course in Reading

Went to Reading today. Spent a bit less time there than I planned, thanks to slow running trains. I was there for a meeting about the Imagine Cup. They had some student teams presenting UK projects and the Microsoft UK academic team, along with Joe Wilson, who heads up the contest.

The students did a couple of presentations and were then subjected to what we call the “Imagine Cup Grilling”. This is where we look at what they have done and suggest ways it could be made better. I was very even handed, in that by the end I think I had managed to offend everybody in the room, at which point I left to catch my train home. Settling down in my seat I was chatting to a lady next to me who was most upset that she had just had to pay 84 pounds just to get back to Nottingham. I responded, rather wittily I thought, by saying that I’d pay that amount just to get out of Nottingham. I’ve really no idea why I said it. I’ve nothing against the place really, and it didn’t go down too well. (actually, I think anyone who knows me can readily imagine me doing this. Oh well. I think I’m too old to change now.)

Anyhoo, the meeting was very interesting. Microsoft’s continuing commitment to the competition is very commendable, particularly in the face of present economic conditions. I think at the bottom line they recognise that the kind of people who enter the Imagine Cup are the future, and engagement with them is a good thing. I told the students that just taking part in the competition and surviving a grilling makes them better professionals and adds a huge amount of value to them as potential employees. I really think this is true, and perhaps the best reason for anyone to enter the competition.