Eliaz Tobias's Blog

Amazing Imagine Cup Israel 2010 Software Design Finals Competition

Imagine Cup Israel 2010 Software Design Finals

On May 3^rd, 2010, we held the Imagine Cup Israel Software Design Finals.

The competition this year started with 30 teams from 9 different institutes from which 18 teams competed in the finals.

400 people attended the event including students, faculty and people from the industry, venture capitals, journalists and MS employees. This year, we raised the bar with a very successful event in every possible metric. The event was hosted in the College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS) and was produced with the college’s assistance and leadership as well. I would like to thank COMAS for helping us raise that bar and for the amazing partnership.

The Event

The morning of the event started with a packed agenda including some opening words from the Mayor of Rishon Le-Zion, Mr. Dov Tzur and COMAS’s president, Mr. Zeev Noyman. After the opening words we had some cool technological innovation sessions on Windows Azure, Windows Phone 7, Robotics, Silverlight and Bing Maps. In parallel with the sessions, a preliminary judging took place in other rooms in the faculty where 6 teams were selected out of the 18. Each team presented in front of a subset of the judges that were spread across 4 judging rooms.

Later, all attendees went into a large fair where all projects were presented. The fair also included some cool Microsoft technologies such as X-BOX, Guitar Hero and we even brought Surface to the fair.

At noon, we reassembled and for some opening words from Mrs. Esther Peshin, GM of the Hi-Tech Lobby in the Knesset Parilament, followed by Mr. Yoram Yaacovy, CTO and GM Technologies in MS Israel R&D center. Later we announced the 6 finalists that went on stage and presented their projects again but now in front of the entire audience and in front of the full panel of 20 judges. The selection was tough but eventually 3 projects were selected as the winners. In parallel, an SMS triggered competition called "Know the Future" tool place where a student won a laptop for guessing who the winning team will be.

The Winners

The 1^st place went to 3 students from the Technion, Yoav Cantor, Keren Gorenstein, and Amit Gil  that created "Help!"

"Help!" is an innovative solution to a few of the top challenges our world is facing. "Help!" facilitates a fast and an accurate response to emergency scenarios such as criminal attack, medical emergency or even lost kids scenarios.

The software runs on mobile phones, and can be triggered at the press of a button, or via automated timer. When activated, Help calls for help by sending Bluetooth transmissions and automatic SMS messages to pre-selected emergency contacts or nearby strangers who can help. Help also documents the emergency event, storing GPS coordinates and cellphone info, which it uploads to a remote server. The information can be viewed by the user’s emergency contacts.

The 2^nd place in the Israeli competition went to Mech, a project designed to provide emergency medical alerts for people with health monitoring devices. Tamer Salman of the Mech team from the Technion University as well, explained their project as “a system that monitors health devices attached to peoples’ bodies, heart implants, blood pressure monitors, etc. A Bluetooth transmitter can send the information to a mobile phone, and then to a doctor.” The device would automatically alert medical authorities when measurements indicate an emergency, allowing for a fast response.

The 3rd place went to MiHAPi a joint project between two students from Ben-Gurion University and the College of Management Academic Studies, placed third. The project’s slogan is “you play, we buy, they’re happy.” It allows users to engage in a sort of Sims style interface, engaging with a virtual family as a way to connect with real families in need.

Published Sunday, May 09, 2010 11:21 AM by eliazt