This past weekend I returned from Imagine Cup 2004 in Brazil. I was honored to be asked to represent Canada as a judge for the event – and of course I couldn’t refuse a free trip to Brazil. Truthfully, I didn’t hear much about Imagine Cup previously – and I was very surprised to see how big and how fundamentally important this event is.
For those of you who don’t know what Imagine Cup is you can check out its web site: www.imaginecup.com. In short, it’s an international software development competition sponsored by Microsoft targeting the academic population. Imagine Cup is much more than your average everyday software development competition – the competition actually was divided into 4 categories: Short Film, Software Design, Algorithms, and Rendering. You MUST go and check out the finalists in each of the categories on the web site. Pure genius!
The event blew me away. Actually, that’s wrong – the students, who represented about 36 countries from around the world blew me away. Their enthusiasm, creativity, ingenuity brought tears to my eyes and goose-bumps to my skin. I was responsible for helping to judge the software design category – starting by interviewing 17 teams (20 min per team). I thought I would get tired, but each group that we interviewed inspired and excited me. We narrowed the first 17 down to a top 12 – split the group – and interviewed 6 more. At the end of the day, we interviewed 23 teams and I have to say that each team represented their country proudly – clearly demonstrating that they were indeed the best in their country.
The judging process was very fair. I never, ever got to see any other judge’s marks. It was completely blind. In fact, I was only responsible for submitting a ranked list of teams – individual scores I kept in my possession. The judges were free to talk about the groups – but in no way indicated anything more than that. What I found interesting was that I had no idea who would win the competition – and was holding my breath just as much (probably not) as the student teams.
Next year – Japan – look out. Imagine Cup is going to be bigger and better. I plan to do anything and everything I can to support my local and regional teams – and I truly hope I can return as a judge and feel the wave of inspiration once again. Working and talking with these students has reminded me why I chose computer science – creation is literally at our fingertips. For all the teams out there – GREAT JOB! – “judging” you was the hardest thing you could ever imagine because every single one of you are winners because of your creativity and pure enthusiasm.
I plan on posting some pictures very soon of the event as well as from the tour we took at Foz do Iguacu. Stay tuned!