Competition begins

Hello from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Agra, is home to one of the world's seven wonders, the Taj Mahal. We are staying in the Jaypee Palace Hotel, which is opulent to say the least. We will visit the Taj Mahal on Wednesday and some of the team members have already made forays into Agra city for shopping and sight seeing. Not to worry about them, they are actually accompanied by an escort AND an armed guard. It is not uncommon to see automatic weapons on the street in Agra at least - we're definately not in Kansas... erm, Virginia anymore.

India is a heady brew to take in at once - the stunning scenery, culture, cuisine and history sits alongside brutal poverty the likes of which none of our team have seen with our own eyes. The people are gracious thus far and Microsoft has, as usual, pulled out all the stops. I think our exposure to Indian people and culture will accelerate towards the end of our stay as those days are more geared towards touring and outings.

Team PocketDoc began their competition yesterday morning (08/07/2006) with a "lightening" round during which they had seven minutes to familiarize their judges with their project and "break the ice." This lightening round would not be scored. Joanne Cunningham made this shorter presentation and did a great job. Team PocketDoc has been placed into one of the four divisions which divide the 41 teams competing in the Software Design competition. Recall that that software design competition is the flagship and central competition among others such as short film, interface design, algorithm and animation competitions.

In our immediate division (Godavari, named after a river in India) we are competing against teams from Indonesia, Malta, Morocco, Guatemala, Poland, Russia (last year's winning country), Denmark, Sri Lanka and France

The remaining 32 teams are from the following countries: Tunisia, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, Algeria, Hong Kong, Portugal, Malaysia, Austria, United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, Croatia, South Africa, Mexico, Columbia, Turkey, Thailand, Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Slovenia, Spain, China, India, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Australia.

At 2:00 P.M. local time (we are 9 1/2 hours ahead of EDT) , team PocketDoc entered into their first round of competition and their first opportunity to be scored (and eliminated). I captured their presentation on video and can honestly tell you that it was the BEST they have given thus far. The competition space was noisy, poorly lighted and cramped, but the video gives you a sense of our team rising to and above the challenge.

Watch the video of their first round in Agra

The team is in high spirits and partook of some much-needed rest and relaxation after their 20-minute presentation today. Tomorrow, they will present at a "science fair" where the media can interview them and sample a demonstration of their project. By noon local time, team PocketDoc will know if they are one of the twelve teams chosen to move on to the second round of competition. The six winners in the second round compete for the Imagine Cup on Thursday when we return to New Delhi.

Will Calder has been taking lots of great photos with his nifty 35mm digital camera. Rather than link to his pictures here, I will direct you to his space on flickr.com.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/willcalder/

It is actually early in the morning here, but my sleep schedule is still a little off. To top it off, some of us are already getting a little "Delhi belly" from the spicy Indian food. I will make an entry here as soon as possible once I know whether or not team PocketDoc has moved ahead in the competition towards the coveted Imagine Cup.