And the winner is…
I am thrilled to announce the winner of the embeddedSPARK competition.
After a day of preparation and rehearsals on Tuesday, the 3 finalists had to present their projects and respond judges questions at the Commons on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond yesterday at 2PM. It was a very intense moment and all of the participants demonstrated extensive understanding of the Windows Embedded Compact 7 platform and compelling innovation.
The project presenting the most hardcore embedded solution won the contest while we were very impressed by the advanced User Interfaces and Cloud synchronization that the other competitors developed leveraging the .Net Compact Framework, Silverlight For Windows Embedded and Windows Azure.
The final ranking is the following:
- Grand champion winning the competition: Sebastian Londoño, Researcher at the Universidad ICESI in Cali, Columbia with his project ArS8ver , a smart flying drone: ARS8VER aims to reduce the number of deaths and injured people when natural disasters occur, through intelligent technologies that optimize the search time for victims and manage to get a broader picture of the disaster, which is usually not accessible due to debris and suspended particles in the air. ARS8VER second purpose is to promote research of biodiversity observation. Through augmented reality and real-time interfaces can interact with the environment allowing users to pinpoint areas of difficult access to investigate or observe the fauna and flora. Finally, ARS8VER is focused on solving the problem of surveillance of buildings or places. |
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- Second is for Gianni Rosa Gallina , Software engineer at BEPS Engineering in Italy who invented KitchenPal , a pantry manager that syncs over the Cloud with your phone and a web application: We all live in a digital age, the age when computers control your music, photos, videos and entertainment. Why not let them control your meal planning, manage your recipes and track your food inventory? What about managing the foods your need to create the recipes? Nowadays lots of alternatives exist on the Internet and can be used on PCs and/or smart phones. But they have one, big problem in common: they need a personal computer, and people who know how to use it. Is it possible to make their life easier? |
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- In third position, Marco Boidora, also Software Engineer at BEPS Engineering in Italy, last year’s Grand Champion with his project Post-IT , a great Embedded Digital Blackboard brining peace at home helping synchronizing each other in their daily life: In every house there is a little blackboard where you can write memos about what is missing or what you have to do. This object is useful but often you can forget to write, update or change the things to do. Another frequent problem is forgetting the shopping list at home! Post-IT! is the solution to remember all the small things! |
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After their presentation, the finalists had the chance to go spend a nice gift card at the Microsoft Company Store.
To end the day, judges, competitors and the event organizers met at Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue for an exquisite diner.
The winner was announced during the diner and while the ceremony was fairly intimate, it was full of emotion.
And finally today, the finalists got a chance to take a tour in the Seattle area. They could go on a ferry cruise on Lake Washington and also visited the Museum of Flight. Sam Phung has volunteered to be their guide for this day of visit.
I would like to thank Mike Hall and Sam Phung who accepted to participate as judges and once again Gitte-Lena (a.k.a Steel) for her stunning execution on this project: a vibrant and full of passion community event!