DIT teams take 1st and 2nd place in Imagine Cup!
10th May 2010
The all-Ireland final of the Microsoft ‘Imagine Cup’ took place last Thursday in the Gleeson Theatre in DIT and the home side took the top two honours. First prize went to Nikola Nevin and Marco Castorina for their project ‘Imaginote’ – a music and physical therapy application using sound beams that translate physical movements into beautiful patterns and sounds. The software was developed by Nikola, a fourth year student in the School of Computing and Marco, a Masters student in the Digital Media Centre, with the help from Enable Ireland and Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School.
Winners - Team Imaginote, Nikola Nevin and Marco Castorina
Second place also went to a DIT team - Team Cloud Hands. This project, an amazing Tai Ch training simulation using 3D graphics, motion capture, speech recognition and augmented reality, was developed by students Frank Han (DT584), Johnathan Lynch (DT584), Jonathan Plunket(DT228) and Xu Haoming(UL).
2nd place – Team Cloudhands, Johnathan Lynch, Jonathan Plunket, Frank Han (DIT) and Xu Haoming (UL).
The presentations were made by Minister for Trade and
Commerce, Billy Kelleher TD and Paul Rellis, Managing Director of
Microsoft Ireland. The competition received 600 entries from
colleges across the whole island of Ireland, and the adjudicators and
Paul Rellis emphasised that the standard had been exceptionally high.
The final stage last week saw twenty projects whittled down by the
judges to just five. Each of the five were then given a further
opportunity to ‘sell’ their idea through a five-minute presentation on
stage in the Gleeson Theatre. Following that, the judges made the
final decision and announced the winners. Bryan Duggan, School of
Computing, said: “After two days of intense presentations in
Microsoft's Campus and in DIT, "Team Imaginote" were announced
outright winners while "Team Cloud Hands" took second place. This
represents the culmination of nine months of hard word for both teams
and is a fantastic achievement for the students. Their projects have
huge potential for further development and are a great example of how
technology innovation can change lives - and the world.”
Mr. Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland, with Professor Brian Norton and Minister Billy Kelleher
Nikola and Marco of Team Imaginote will now go on to represent Ireland at the world Imagine Cup finals in Poland in July. Professor Brian Norton, President of DIT, was present for the announcement of the results and said he was extremely proud of the students and their mentors on their major achievements. Speaking to the audience of students and invited guests, he noted that DIT has the largest provision of computing in the country, including business, engineering and science programmes and he said for DIT teams to come first and second in such a prestigious competition would be a huge encouragement to other students.
