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• Pixel Poetry

  Hi, It was our very great pleasure to sponsor and support the Microsoft Photography Competition at the Department of Engineering 2008, at the University of Cambridge. Blue Spikes, by Sonja Findeisen-Tandel If proof were needed, these photographs exemplify the strong connection between art and science and that engineering particularly, has an inner beauty. The winning photograph, Blue Spikes, by Sonja Findeisen-Tandel, together with other stunning entries can be viewed at Microsoft Photography Competition at the Department of Engineering. Which puts me in mind on Imagine Cup 2009 and the category for best photo story. It isn’t too soon to get your students involved and thinking about the competition.  You never know, the lucky winner could be from your university and joining us in Cairo for the world finals. The next set of photographs could be of the pyramids and feluccas on Nile. For an overview of the photo story competition please visit Photo Story. All the best, Allison Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5:14 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Events, Imagine Cup, competitions, Academics, Student, Games, Microsoft

• The simplest New Year's Resolution to achieve

  Happy New Year to all! While many a student is still sleeping off the effects of their festivities we are aware that a dedicated few are polishing up their ideas for their entry into the Software Design Challenge of the Imagine Cup. A minority are sleeping smugly because they have already submitted theirs. The extended deadline is January 9th - one week away - so we want to encourage all who have an idea to submit it. Unlike previous years, we do not require working code at this stage so the idea is all that is required. A sample entry shows you what is involved and the rules and other info on the Imagine Cup Website but if there is anything else that you need to know then please get in touch. WIth competitions, I know from personal experience that taking part can bring huge rewards; past competitors in this competition who now have top jobs, memories and career-building experiences will agree. Make it your New Year's resolution to encourage a team (or ten) to enter and by next week you can relax and know that you have started the year with success. Claire Posted Wednesday, January 02, 2008 8:26 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup, competitions, Student, Academic

• Inspiration Tour Update

  With 17 dates behind them and another 37 yet to come, Ed and Ben are having a great impact on the students that they present to as part of the Inspiration Tour. We love to get feedback, both good and bad but our favourite so far is: The talk you gave today was absolutely awesome, as were the demos. Loved every minute of it from the front row. You even had me crying when you were talking about the opportunities - everything I dreamed about. Thanks to both of you. All dates are now booked but if your university has missed out then please get in touch and we will see if we can fit you into an additional slot.   Claire Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007 10:12 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 1 Comments Filed under: Events, Imagine Cup, XNA, Careers, Technology, Web, Academics, Silverlight, Embedded, Student, Software

• Life changing prizes to be won the the Imagine Cup

  Technorati Tags: Imagine Cup, Students The Imagine cup registrations are flooding in and the competition is definitely hotting up. If you need anymore compelling reasons to prompt your students into registering (apart from the chance to win an Xbox 360 Elite) I thought I would share with you the prizes that are on offer which could really make a difference to their live's and give them a great start into their chosen career.   Competition Prize Software Design 2 weeks in Seattle working alongside the Popfly team. A great work experience opportunity to see how Microsoft builds software that the winners can use when they apply for jobs and go into industry Game Development 2 weeks work experience at a Microsoft Games Studio in the UK Embedded Development 2 weeks work experience at a Microsoft embedded partner IT Challenge A Tranquil PC Windows Home Server Project Hoshimi 2 weeks work experience at a Microsoft Games Studio in the UK Algorithm A top specced desktop PC with Visual Studio 2008 Interface Design A top specced desktop PC with Expression Studio Short Film An HD video camera with tripod and accessories Photography A Digital SLR camera, tripod, extra lens and accessories   As you can see some of the prizes could really make a difference to your students future,so what are you waiting for go to the Imagine Cup Website and find out how you can get involved.   Kate Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 10:30 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students, System Administrator, competitions, Academics, Teaching, Student

• Tip: Imagine Cup registrations; if you don't tell us who you are we can't send your prize!

  As more and more students are registering for the Imagine Cup I have noticed that many are not giving us factual names and addresses. We understand a person's reluctance to provide such personal info but there is a very good reason why we need it - last year we had trouble issuing several prizes because we did not know who and where to send them and the students involved thought that our 'You have won a prize' emails were spam. Our privacy policy states that we will only use the personal information provided in relation to this event so please make sure that your students let us know who they are. This can be done by signing in and selecting My Profile. Technorati Tags: Imagine Cup, Students Posted Thursday, November 08, 2007 8:03 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students, Student

• Tales from the Inspiration Tour

  The Inspiration Tour is underway and our presenters Ed Dunhill and Ben Coley have so far presented at Manchester Metropolitan University and Staffordshire University. Check out their blogs to read comments from the students and to access links to some great accompanying resources. Next they are off to Bradford, Hull, Essex and Aberystwyth, oh and stopping by Nottingham to help with GameCity. Those of you who have already booked a date should now have an email from me with the electronic version of the flyer and in the next few days you should receive a poster tube with some hard copies too. Don't forget to let me know how many students will be at your session so that I can send you enough t-shirts and other items to give out. One smart university set up a simple registration system so that they would know when the event was sold out and conversely, if more marketing needed to be done. We do this with all of our internal events and allow for a 30% drop-out rate. If you have any questions about the tour or still haven't booked your slot yet then please email me i-claipe@microsoft.com. You can check date availability here Claire Technorati Tags: Inspiration Tour, Students Posted Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:52 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup, XNA, .NET, Silverlight, Embedded, Student

• The Microsoft Inspiration Tour

  Last week we announced that we are sending our team on the road from October to March to talk to your students. The response has been excellent and sadly I have to report that ALL of the Wednesday slots before Christmas have now been taken. There are still a few Tuesday and Thursday slots available this term but I urge you to get in touch with a selection of dates as soon as you can. Claire Technorati Tags: Students, Teaching Posted Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:38 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup, XNA, Teaching, Silverlight, Embedded, Student

• Inspiration Tour

  We’re very excited in the Academic team, we’re just about to launch the “Inspiration Tour” and we can’t wait to go out and meet you all. Ed Dunhill           Ed and Ben will be out on the road during the next six months, so why not take a look at our Inspiration Tour web page to find out more and beat the rush to reserve your tour date now! Ben Coley                                               The aim of the inspiration tour is to bring technology to you and your students, everything from the . NET platform to some of the really cool stuff that’s around at the moment like Silverlight, XNA and Microsoft Embedded technologies. Spaces will fill up fast so please email us if you are interested in securing a date. Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:28 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Events, Imagine Cup, XNA, Students, Careers, Training, Technology, Web, Academics, .NET

• And the winners of the Imagine Cup 2007 are...

  Software Design ·         First place: Thailand — Team 3KC Returns/Project LiveBook! Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong, Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin, Jatupon Sukkasem, Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn ·         Second place: Korea — Team En#605/Project Finger Code Lim Chan-kyu, Min Kyoung-hoon, Lim Byoung-su, Jeong Ji-hyeon ·         Third place: Jamaica — Team ICAD/Project CADI Imran Allie, Conroy Smith, Ayson Baxter, Damion Mitchell Embedded Development ·         First place: Brazil — Team TriventDreams ED Carlos Eduardo Rodriques, Andrew Wilson Furtado, Ivan Cordeiro Cardim ·         Second place: Romania — Team Aether Alexandru Vranescu, Bogdan Tanasa, Ionel Vuza, Bogdan Holmanu ·         Third place: China — Team SEED Huning Dai, Zhou Xue, Ziqing Ye, Dai Tang Web Development ·         First place: France — Team APB Benjamin Talmard, Thomas Albisser, Pierrick Blons, Sebastien Lam ·         Second place: Ireland — Team Red Dawn Mohammed Al-Tahs, Marouf Azad ·         Third place: China — Team Frontfree Studio-Web Jiasheng Guo, Weining Sha, Xia Xiao, Zhenda Zhao Project Hoshimi (Programming Battle) ·         First place: Argentina — Team OIA Pablo Gauna, Nicolás Rodríguez Vilela ·         Second place: France — Team Arenium Laure Portet, Régis Hanol ·         Third place: Serbia — Team vladan.simov Vladan Simov IT Challenge ·         First place: China — Zhifeng Chen ·         Second place: France — Romain Larmet Third place: Romania — Ilie Cosmin Viorel Algorithm ·         First place: Poland — Przemyslaw Debiak ·         Second place: Ukraine — Roman Koshlyak ·         Third place: Hungary — Szilveszter Szebeni Photography ·         First place: Poland — Team Maraqja Iwona Bielecka, Malgorzata Lopaciuk ·         Second place: Croatia — Team Black and White Aleksandar Kordić, Igor Matoša ·         Third place: Canada — Team Awesome Patrick Struys, Ryan Marr Short Film ·         First place: Poland — Team Skylined Julia Górniewicz, Jacek Barcikowski ·         Second place: Taiwan — Team Circle Chang Hao-Jan, Chang Shu-Wei, Tseng Yen-Chi, Lin Di-Er ·         Third place: Brazil — Team Papa Paçoca Alexandre Nacari, Arthur de Pádua, Felipe Pellisser, Wendel Yokoyama Interface Design ·         First place: Austria — Team OOT Graphics Verena Lugmayr, Claudia Oster ·         Second place: China — Team Frontfree Studio UI Dongjing Yao, Yushi Ma ·         Third place: France — Team Atomnium Manon Gaucher, Flavien Charlon   CONGRATULATIONS to all of the above! Their achievement is incredible and will change their lives, their submissions were inspiring! Read a retrospective about the finals, watch the video blog and watch this space for more news on the competitors and their entries.   Claire Posted Friday, August 10, 2007 9:01 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Events, Imagine Cup, Students, Academics

• Meet the Imagine Cup teams in Second Life

  As I'm sure you're aware the WorldWide finals of the Imagine Cup Korea are just around the corner. So I wanted bring to your attention that the Imagine Cup Gallery is now live in Second Life and is showcasing 21 of the Software Design teams and their applications from Europe, the Middle East and Africa before they head off to compete. Why not come along and meet the teams, check out their presentations and videos or even hang out at the Korean bar and pavilion. The Imagine Cup Gallery in Second Life runs until August 5th 2007 so you can visit anytime. However we’re holding two open events for you to come and meet the different teams and these will be held from 18:00 – 20:00 GMT on July 19th and 26th 2007.  Find out more, watch the video or if you already have a Second Life Avatar teleport directly to the Microsoft Island. Otherwise simply sign up for a Second Life ID and Avatar and install the Second Life application today. We look forward to seeing you at the Imagine Cup in Second Life soon.   Posted Thursday, July 19, 2007 9:34 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup

• Introducing Computer Science with Project Hoshimi

  Last December we had the pleasure of meeting many of you at the XNA worldwide launch held at Warwick University. Games Development has become one of our hot topics with many requests for talks, books, resources and advice.  At the same time we also had the pleasure of working with many of you and your students with the Imagine Cup. It will therefore come as no surprise that more and more universities are linking the Imagine Cup into Games Development courses. If you are thinking along these lines then I can recommend you read  IntroducingCSWithProjectHoshimi.  by Berrelleza Perez, Ramiro, Chavez Echeagaray, Maria Elena and Gonzalez Sanchez, Javier. Claire Posted Monday, July 09, 2007 4:56 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Teaching Resources, Imagine Cup, XNA, Technology

• Imagine Cup - the winners are...

  Those of you who have been following the Imagine Cup this year will already know that first place in the Software Design Challenge went to The Seedlings from the University of Hull. They have now won a place representing the UK in the global finals in Seoul, Korea. 2nd place went to CompUTeach from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth  and 3rd to Herts of Code from the University of Hertfordshire. Well done to all the teams who took part! ....BUT the Software Design Challenge is only one of the nine ways to enter the Imagine Cup and so we are now pleased to announce that multiple students from the following universities have successfully completed round 1 in their category : Bradford University   De Montfort University   Manchester University   Swansea University University of Birmingham   University of Cambridge   University of Hull   University of Kent University of Leicester   University of Manchester   University of Reading   University of Stirling University of York Round 2 ends on May 18th – that’s next Friday folks – so we wish them all the best of luck and will keep you posted about who will be joining The Seedlings on the plane to Korea. To keep up-to-date with the global competition www.imaginecup.com Good luck! Claire   Posted Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:00 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup

• MultiPoint and the Imagine Cup

  Attention all Imagine Cup competitors! We're tying up our new MultiPoint technology with the Imagine Cup Software Design, Web Development, and Interface Design Challenges. In fact, we think that the concept is so valuable to the competition's theme of education, that we're going to be awarding an Microsoft Research Internship to the team that comes up with the most innovative use of MultiPoint. More information can be found on the Imagine Cup website, as can a link to the download. Finally, you can learn more about MultiPoint from our very own Channel9.   Andy Posted Wednesday, March 07, 2007 12:56 PM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup

• UK Imagine Cup - Software Development Challenge

  "Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all"... And so many of you did! This year's UK thread of the Imagine Cup saw our best-ever clutch of inspirational software solutions and proposals aimed at inspiring and educating students of all ages. We all understand that this is a huge commitment and effort undertaken on top of your existing studies, and for going beyond, we're truely grateful. After due deliberation we're please to announce the winners of the UK Round 1. These teams have been invited to Microsoft's UK headquarters for the UK Final, to be held on 30th March - where they will need to survive both a quick-fire judging session and then a 30 minute presentation. Daunting stuff, but worth it - the winners of the UK final will be flown out to Korea for the worldwide finals in August - a fantastic prize, and huge opportunity for those hungry to make an impact in the technology world. Ahem. I digress. The UK Round 1 winners are... Team Roundtrack - University of Hull Team Communitosystems - University of Aberystwyth The Seedlings - University of Hull Team HertsOfCode - University of Hertfordshire Team Compu-U-Teach - University of Aberystwyth Team Error 404 File Not Found - University of Hull Team Irresponsible Pizza Eaters - University of Hull Team Learning Curve - University of Reading magNet - University of St Andrew’s Team Ice - University of Aberystwyth Team Bath - University of Bath Well done one and all - we'll see you on the 30th! Initial observations are that there are a handful of Universities that have taken the Imagine Cup and use it to enhance their curriculum - the institutional effect can be clearly seen in Aber and Hull - where it turns out that a number of first year students are amongst the teams above.  That said individual efforts are still strongly evident, and it's great to see a number of Universities entering the Imagine Cup for the first time.   Andy Posted Wednesday, March 07, 2007 12:42 PM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup

• Imagine Cup World Wide Final - The Results Are In!

  Well, you heard it here last.  After a very long week of competition in Agra, and a couple of days battling it out in Delhi, the world-wide Imagine Cup final results are in. Italy's team, Event .ctor (I think that's right) demonstrated a system for collecting ad-hoc patient data - the kind not usually communicated during diagnosis - that could prove useful in helping treat patients with anxiety disorder. Teams from Brazil and Norway took second and third place respectively. A really great offer was made to these teams, and others from the top twelve entries - the chance to help accelerate their ideas into business with a week-long intensive workshop with BT and Microsoft UK. So - what about the plucky Brits? Alas, the Digital Recovery Environment didn't seem to be a sticky idea this year, and despite and excellent presentation and Q&A, Team Three Pair didn't reach the finals.  Never mind - now all eyes turn to Imagine Cup 2007, and Korea!  For those of you in the UK, it's likely that we'll be holding a similar event to last year to celebrate the best of UK student talent.  In addition, we'll be looking to get some great entries in the other competitions - IT Challenge, Short Film, Algorithm, Programming Battle and Interface Design.  I'll be blogging about the individual competitions over the next few weeks, but as ever, it's your students that count here.  This year's theme for the Software Design Challenge is... "Imagine a world in which technology enables a better education for all" Have a good look at our UK Imagine Cup site, and sign up for updates - there'll be plenty of chance to get your students involved, and get your hands on those tickets to Seoul! Read More BBC News Article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4789979.stm) UK Team's Diary (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5246630.stm) UK Academic Mentor's Blog (http://www.robmiles.com/display/ShowJournal?module...)   Andy Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:20 PM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Imagine Cup