US Imagine Cup Announces Top 3 Teams at the Microsoft Student Competition

  • Article

The results are in for the top 3 US finalists in Imagine Cup, Multi-Point Web, Special Child, and Mango Bunnies are all competing first prize!  Congratulations!! Later today will be the big announcement of who took #1, #2, and #3.  Imagine Cup is a premiere student competition where the best and brightest students come together.  This year’s US Finals are currently being held in Cambridge, MA.

Who are these teams making it to the top?  Here’s a summary of their projects and team members:

Multi-Point Web

The Project:   Our solution is to build upon existing education systems and proved a set of low to no cost web based learning activities that allow every child to participate with multiple mice on one computer, with limited available hardware resources and funding.

The Team:  

  • Jimmy Dickinson is a student at GSU University working towards his Masters in Information Systems. Jimmy plans to graduate in 2010 and writes mini games in his spare time in Flash and Silverlight and loves to travel.
  • Mark Dickinson is a college student at Portland Committee College majoring in Computer Science. In his spare time, Mark likes making custom game mods.
  • Luke Dickinson is a high school student at Tigard High School. In his spare time Luke has made some mini flash activities and would like to learn Silverlight.

Special Child

The Project:  

This project was chosen because the State of Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Children’s Services does not currently have a centralized database holding information for all children available for adoption in the custody of DHS. Case Workers for the Division of Child and Family Services are aware only of those children for whom they are personally responsible and perhaps others whose cases are handled within the same office. The pool of children available to parents wishing to adopt is limited to those known to the Case Worker assigned to the parents. In order to reach outside of this narrow collection of information a great deal of legwork is required on the part of the parents to contact DHS offices outside of their county of residence.

Special Child is dedicated to providing a quality product to our clients that not only assists and organizes the adoption process for our customers, but sees to it that every child awaiting adoption spends as little time waiting on a list as possible. The goal of the Special Child Adoption Services application is to put in place a centralized database as a location to store information about children in need of a permanent home and potential adoptive parents. Special Child’s design will provide quick access to shared information. Thus, the adoption process is handled efficiently and effectively.

The Special Child project brings together the 2009 Imagine Cup theme “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today” by utilizing technology in a way that resolves an issue yet to be addressed on the local level.

The Team:  

  • Joshua Thacker is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Management Information Systems at UALR
  • Sandy Callahan conceived the main idea of Special Child and is the overseer of the quality of the project.  She is a current graduate student at UALR. 
  • Shreyasi Dutta has been working on the technical aspects of this project. 
  • Tomica Seals is in her second year of graduate school at UALR and is pursuing a Master of Science in Management Information Systems. 

Mango Bunnies

The Project:  

The application, Computer-Assisted Medication Regimen Adherence (CAMRA), will assist people with complex medication regimens. CAMRA is targeted to HIV/AIDS patients and will be convenient and discreet. CAMRA is unique because it uses mobile technology and only requires a mobile device, something many people already own. There is no product on the market that leverages the portability and convenience of mobile devices to turn them into stand-alone health care products.

The Team:  
  • Ashley is a junior Computer Science major at DePauw University.
  • Erin ‘Ed’ Donahue is a senior Computer science major at DePauw University.
  • Malisa is a sophomore Computer Information and Technology major with a focus on web development at Purdue School of Engineering and Technology.

Follow the news about Imagine Cup through Microsoft Press Releases:

https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/imaginecup/default.aspx

Technorati Tags:  Imagine Cup, Student