Here is the information, if you decide to put a team together, please let me know as we’d like to track UW CSE involvement.
Crystal Eney
ceney@cs.washington.edu
Randy Guthrie (RANDY) <Randy.Guthrie@microsoft.com>
Subject: Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012 Competition Starts: $25,000
Departmental Prizes Offered
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition is one of the world’s largest
student technology competitions, and while the dust is still settling
from last July’s record-breaking World Finals in New York, I am happy
to announce that the 2012 United States Imagine Cup competition has
started and is bigger and better than ever. In 2012 the US is hosting
its own Software Design, Game Design, and IT Challenge competitions in
Redmond, WA, and the World Finals will be held in Sydney, Australia.
In addition to travel, prize money, great PR, and a life-changing
experience for your students, we have expanded the $25,000
departmental team sponsor prize to include both Software Design and
Game Design (more details below) winners.
Some of last year’s finalists developed solutions that helped
partially-blind students take notes in class, screen blood samples for
malaria using a mobile phone, and help students with asthma manage
their symptoms by playing a video game that requires breathing through
a special tube. Some projects were developed just for the competition
and others were developed for research or to fill a course
requirement and then were entered as a secondary objective. Many of
our winners were undergraduate students, but a couple great projects
came from graduate research and labs.
The United States runs two Imagine Cup competitions per year to better
align with the academic calendar; one in the Fall and one in the
Spring. The Fall competition historically has about the half as many
competitors than the Spring competition, and finalists are chosen from
both so there is a big advantage for competing in the Fall. Fall
finalists are announced by the end of November, so teams that are
selected in Fall get about 4 months to polish their projects. Spring
winners are announced in March and will have less than 6 weeks to
polish and complete their projects, so the advantages of competing in
Fall are almost overwhelming if you can get your team formed and plans
submitted by the Fall Round One deadline of October 14th. Teams that
are not selected as finalists in the Fall are allowed (and encouraged)
to keep working on their projects, incorporate judging feedback and
resubmit them in the Spring.
The Competitions
Software Design – Round One Deliverables
Team Registration
Draft Business Plan
Due October 14th at 5pm
Game Design – Round One Deliverables
Team Registration
Draft Game Storyboard
Due October 14th at 5pm
IT Challenge – Round One
Pass quiz on website with score of 15 or higher
Due TBD
As you can see it is easy to get started. The good news is that Round
One for Software Design and Game Design is a project milestone date
and is not judged. You can literally form a team, write a storyboard
or business plan draft and submit an entry in under an hour. Your
Round One entry shows your intent and automatically advances your team
to Round Two. For the IT Challenge, you can take the tests as often as
you like; score above 15 and you automatically advance to the next
round.
The Software Design and Game Design competitions are team
competitions; students can form teams of up to four students plus a
faculty mentor. The IT Challenge is an individual competition that
aligns with Microsoft’s IT Certifications.
Software Design – Round Two Deliverables
Updated Business Plan
Beta Code
3-5 minute video presentation (think infomercial)
Due November 14th at 5pm
Game Design – Round Two Deliverables
Playable game executable (at least one complete level)
Written game summary
Game instructions
3-5 minute game demo video
Due November 14th at 5pm
IT Challenge – Round Two
Case Study
Due TBD
The Rewards
Ten Software Design, Twenty Game Design (ten in each category) and Ten
IT Challenge Competitors will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the
Imagine Cup US finals in April 2012 at the Microsoft Redmond Campus.
First, Second and Third place teams will receive cash prizes. The
winner of the US Software Design competition also will represent the
US at the Imagine Cup World Finals at Sydney, Australia in July 2012.
Mentors in Software Design and Game Design are also given paid travel
to support their teams.
Imagine Cup competitors also get invaluable experience that is highly
valued by recruiters. Many Imagine Cup competitors get interviews and
job offers from Microsoft. Even if a student team doesn’t get selected
as a finalist, they can add their experience to their resumes and may
qualify for honorable mention, which can add important differentiation
in today’s challenging job market.
Last year the first-place team in the Software Design category not
only won a cash prize for the team members, they also won a $25,000
prize for their mentor’s department. This year, we are expanding the
departmental sponsor grant award to include both Software Design and
Game Design winners.
Resources
Besides the resources listed on the Imagine Cup web page, your school
may qualify for an on-campus Imagine Cup workshop. Microsoft has
fielded a team of regional developer evangelists that can come to
campus, explain the details of the competition, and walk interested
students through the sign-up, brainstorming, team formation, and
business plan/storyboard submission; from zero to Round One in less
than two hours. Interested in using Windows 7, Kinect, or Windows 8?
Your school may also qualify for a technical jump-start workshop to
get you from plan to code as quickly as possible.
If you would like more information about the competition or are
interested in hosting a workshop, please let me know.
Cheers,
Randy Guthrie, PhD
Microsoft Academic Developer Evangelist [US-West]