The Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals – Part 1

Posted on July 12, 2011 by sam

Getting There

So after taking the train down from Newcastle to Manchester Airport I met up with my fellow teammates at the desk where we would check in for the flight – the person who was asking us security questions seemed to figure out we were in a team based on the number of laptops we were carrying! (JP won with the most – being 3!!)

The Flight

We all had an enjoyable flight to New York. Damo had never actually gone flying before this! We all did some editing on our presentation to further improve it on the crossing, however aside from this nothing much happened and it was quite relaxing.

The Hotel

So once through customs we managed to lose JP somehow, but eventually found him again! Then we met the person we had planned to meet and got a taxi (or should I say cab?) to our hotel – The Marriott Marquis on Broadway!

The hotel itself is massive and has an interesting way to get on the lifts. There is a keypad outside the lifts and you enter which floor you would like to go to and then it tells you which lift to go too – the first time we did this we missed our floor as the doors closed too quickly and then discovered we couldn’t tell the lift to go to a different floor while inside, thus we had to leave the lift and repeat the process!

The lifts

Once we (eventually) got to our rooms we discovered how great they are – we have a brilliant view and a massive television (42in)! Unfortuantly Damo had some problems with his room but they’ve all been sorted now!

Once we were all settled in we got some lunch and then chilled until our welcome speech – we were also given a surprise talk by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer! He also announced that all the finalists would receive a Xbox Kinect – which is awesome! After this welcome speech we were going to have an early start the following day and therefore went to bed (also the jetlag was getting at us).

Still to come is the first day of the competition (which was the following day)Â and everything else we have been up to since then!

You Are Cleared For Takeoff

Posted on July 7, 2011 by sam

Just a short post today – lots to get done.. Tomorrow we head off to NYC!

With our presentation nearing completion, our application completed and a new design for the website, we are confident that our solution performs well in it’s attempts to solve the UNMDG (United Nations Millennium Development Goals).

Tomorrow we’ll be blogging (as often as we can) about our journey over to NYC and hope to get some pictures in too!

T Minus 3

Posted on July 5, 2011 by sam

So last Friday we discovered in what order everyone would be presenting, they drew the countries names one by one and instead of going from first to last, they would order them last to first. We were drawn 7th which makes us the 61st team to be presenting (out of 67)!

Yesterday we had our first formal review of our presentation with Microsoft’s Ben Nunney – he has given us plenty of useful advice, and now we start the fine-combing of our presentation to ensure that it is as awesome as possible! Looking back now it is amazing to see the distance that OVE has gone – from an idea in the pub with a few mates all the way to the bustling streets of NYC.

To finish this blog post off with a picture.. Here is a sketch of our initial ideas for the OVE Protocol (only the fundamentals remain – this wasn’t distributed enough for us!) – note that the “openness” of the network has been important to us from the very beginning!

Expect the next update this Thursday!

Solution Configuration: Release

Posted on June 27, 2011 by sam

With our application completed (except for a few minor tweaks and improvements we keep doing) and the presentation going underway we feel we are well on target for the finals – oh, and we all have valid passports now too (which helps a little with actually getting there..!).

For those curious as to what is happening during the week, (a few people have asked me about this) this is the “official” itinerary:

Friday, July 8	Arrivals / Opening Ceremony
Saturday, July 9	Competition Begins
Sunday, July 10	Competition Ends
Monday, July 11	Cultural Day / Finalist Presentation Rehearsals
Tuesday, July 12	Finalist Presentations
Wednesday, July 13	Showcase / World Festival / Farewell Party
Thursday, July 14	Departures

I feel like this post needs to finish with a picture, so this is my development setup at home (cup of coffee is important!)

The Final Stretch

Posted on June 20, 2011 by sam

As my todo list shrinks smaller and smaller the application we will be presenting is nearing completion. Over the past few months we have been working on various bugfixes, security implementations, and new features, and most importantly, we are all very excited to be presenting this at New York in July at the worldwide finals!

However, we cannot start resting on our laurels! There is still plenty of other work which needs to be completed, the main one being our presentation…

We’ll keep you posted!

Exams

Posted on June 9, 2011 by sam

This is just a short post letting you know that our exams are all over now and therefore there will be a lot more development on OVE – so expect more posts/screenshots etc..!

We’re thinking of doing a “development diary” whereby we write up a short review of what we’ve been working on over the past week.

For those of you who haven’t seen us all, here is a photo!

JP – Sam – Damo

About Us

Posted on May 22, 2011 by sam

Thought I’d kick off this blog with a short intro about us all and what you can find us doing when we aren’t working on OVE!

So, our team consists of J.P. Lacerda, Damo Walsh, Sam van Lieshout, and our mentor, Simon Harper. We also get loads of help from Microsofts own Ben Nunney – follow him!

We’re all currently first years studying in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester and are all very passionate about technology!

In our (little) spare time, generally you will find us hacking away on side projects, J.P can usually be found coding away on FLOSS projects, Damo on his own projects (explained better on his own blog), and I’ve recently been writing apps for my WP7 (generally somehow messing with it’s sensors).

I hope this is ok for a blog post – I’m not much of a blogger (and hope to change this!), so all constructive feedback is welcomed.

Hello world!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by sam

This blog will follow the development of Project OVE (Open Volunteer Exchange)!

Project OVE is the winning group of Microsoft’s UK Imagine Cup in the Software Design category! For more information, please check out the “About Project OVE” page!