Imagine Cup 2008: Introducing Team RoboTree

Team Robotree includes Dan Tran (left), Media Ridha (bottom centre) taken just before Drake Birmann (top centre), and Ryan Morrison (right) left for tree planting in Northern Ontario for the summer. The students are from Fanshawe College and the University of Western Ontario. They are one of the six worldwide finalist in the Imagine Cup Short Film competition for their work called "Terra":

Terra is a fairytale about an earth-child who dwells in the forest, and has the ability to sense the environmental impact of human actions on the natural world. Upon discovering garbage from the city in her peaceful forest, Terra decides to help humanity make informed decisions to improve the everyday uptake of the earth’s energy and resources by inventing a device to determine humans’ ecological impact. Terra brings the very first ecological calculator, the “Eco-Cal,” to the city. The Eco-Cal can calculate the ecological footprint of every human being and interpret it through a display screen that shows the unseen destruction of our actions. At first, people rebuke Terra and are unwilling to listen to what she has to offer them. Then a young boy who believes in Terra’s message elps her and takes her to a willing family. The story ends by placing the fate of the natural world not simply on the imaginative technology of the Eco-cal, but on the choices of each individual to sustain the environment in the hopes of a greener future. You can view several captures of the film on my photo website and read an interview on the team's website.

Click below to view "Terra" via Channel 8:

Imagine Cup 2008 Round 3 Film: Terra