Welcome to the journey...

Hello, my name is Jeffry Babb and I am the faculty advisor to three groups of amazing students from Virginia Commonwealth University who are competing in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Invitational National Finals in Redmond, Washington on May 4-7, 2006. I will use this space to keep interested parties up-to-date on the VCU teams' progress as they compete.

Some background...
VCU's Department of Information Systems first became involved with the Imagine Cup in during the 2003-2004 academic year when Chris Stewart, Matt Nuckols and Matt Morton (all IS undergraduate students) competed in that year's competition. The team called themselves "Project Linden" and developed software for the Tablet PC which assisted learning management for autistic children. The team placed in the regional finals above teams like Princeton, among others. Dr. Redmond and Manoj Thomas provided mentorship and advising this year.

During the 2004-2005 academic year, I became involved with advising the student teams from VCU. The theme that year was: "Imagine a world where technology breaks the barriers between us..."

VCU fielded three teams in 2004-2005. Team VxNet consisted of Patricia Ligon, Nathan Morse, Jonathan Lumpkin and Aditya Mehta. Team VxNet placed second in their regional competition with an application designed to help the administration of vaccinations and vaccination data in the case of national disasters and emergencies. An second team, consisting of Hiren Patel, Alpesh Patel and Yueh Hai Wong, fielded an entry focusing on RFID retail applications.

National Victors!
Of course the highlight of the 2004-2005 Imagine Cup experience at VCU was team ECECIS/LiNK. John Sells (Computer Science), John McKeon (Information Systems) and James Barret (Information Systems) won the National Finals at Redmond in May 2005. Team went on to represent the United States at the International Finals in Yokohama, Japan in July 2005. Team LiNK presented a Tablet PC application which assisted in early childhood education and hand-writing skills. The team presented their application exceedingly well and placed 8th Internationally - this accomplishment was a source of great pride for the team and for VCU.

Imagine Cup 2005-2006: Off to take the title again!
With a fresh national win under our belt, I started off the 2005-2006 school year with a drive towards including students from other disciplines: escpecially computer science. By the end of the Fall Semester 2005, three teams had emerged with an eye towards claiming the top prize. The teams from VCU became a near 50/50 mix of Computer Science and Information Systems students. The theme for the 2005-2006 competition is: "Imagine a world where technology allows us to live heathier lives..."

A team of computer science graduate students came as a welcome surprise. Team PocketDoc consists of Joanne Cunningham, Brooks Hollar, Will Calder and Brandon Saunders. This team has developed a Pocket PC application which assists doctors and patients in the administration of their medications, procedures and treatments in the doctor's absence.

A second team will go to Seattle as Patricia Ligon (a returning competitor), Hiren Patel (a returning competitor), Marius McCray and Omar Belkacemi. This team is fielding an application focusing on cross-cultural relationship management such that those entering new cultures can relieve the stress of blending in with that culture. Project 7 Degrees uses a Smart Phone as an agent to smooth over the anxiety of entering new cultures.

Our hybrid Computer Science and Information Systems team this year is Team Asclepius. Jamie Pinkham (Information Systems), Ben Rinaca (Information Systems), Worth Becker (Information Systems) and Aaron Dandy (Computer Science) have created a Pocket PC application which eases the burden of diabetes management for those afflicted with the disease. The application provides an interface between the doctor and patient such that the disease can be monitored and managed conviently.

Competition structure
In order to compete in Redmond, Washington on May 4-7, 2006, the VCU teams had to pass several elimination rounds. The first elimination round occured in February 2006 whereby the applicant list was whittled down to 50 teams from universities across the United States. Teams were restricted to no more than 4 students per team. All three VCU teams passed this round. A further elimination round occured in April 2006 and the list of teams was shortened to 15 teams from schools across the United States. That's right, VCU dominates 20% of the final competition!

More to come...
I am posting this on the eve of departing to Redmond to support the teams as advisor and mentor. I will also have the able support of Tina Babb (my wife) and Manoj Thomas (IS Faculty) this time out. We are all EXTREMELY EXCITED about the opportunity to show Microsoft, other students across the United States and across the world the quality of the VCU entrants.

I'll continue to post on this blog to document the rest of the competition as it unfolds for the student competitors from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jeff