Pyramids

I’ve been told that however much you prepare for the experience, seeing the pyramids for the first time will blow you away. And it does.

The first glimpse

They really are impressive. Close up they are beyond huge, and when you reflect who made them, and how, you just get even more impressed.

Not small

The key is 52 degrees apparently. Anything else falls down.

Antiquities Police

Obligatory tourist shot

Finals Time

Today we did the final presentations. For me that meant sitting with the distinguished judges and watching six presentations, and then coming up with the top three. Before I did that I thought I’d watch some of the other finals, starting with Game Development. They have set up mini-studios and are projecting the presentations into halls around the complex.

This is the UK team beginning their presentation. Good job guys.

In the afternoon it was me and the other judges in the mini-studio, and an assembled multitude outside hearing me ask my, hopefully not stupid, questions. After that it was time for judgely deliberations.

  

Posh food in the judges room.

After that it was a walk back to the room to get ready for the evening meal.

How not to photograph a mirror.

The meal was at the top floor of the shopping centre next door, which is huge.

Sitting down together.

You could also go outside to take in the views of the city at night.

This is part of the hotel complex.

Then it was home for an early night. Tomorrow we are leaving at 7:30 am for the pyramids, and I don’t want to miss that.

Judgement Day at the Imagine Cup

Today was the first round of judging in the Software Development competition here in Cairo. All the judges had to be formed into groups and then sent out to watch presentations from the 68 or so teams from all over the world. Each team had to give a 20 minute presentation, with 10 minutes after that set aside for questions. Then we had to note down some comments, grade the work, hand the judging sheet in and repeat. This made for rather an intense time, but I really like watching students strut their stuff, and so for me it was great fun.

I even took on a bit of overtime, by helping out with the judging in the Imagine Cup Interoperability. Then, after all of this, a list of the top 12 teams out was assembled, and each of them had to repeat their presentations in front of more judges so that we could arrive at the top six for the finals tomorrow.

Joe Wilson announced the finalists for all the categories, and it was particularly nice for me because the UK made it into the next round for both Software Development and the Game Development competitions.

Joe with some of the finalists.

After the judging we all staggered back to our rooms and collapsed. I’ve got some more to do tomorrow, as I’m also one of the distinguished judges for the Software Development final, which should be fun.

Imagine Cup Open for Business

Today the Imagine Cup 2009 started properly. I've been involved with this competition for a very long time, since computers filled entire rooms, and were programmed using punched cards.

Actually no. But I did attend the first World Final in 2003. Lots of things have changed since them of course. The competition has gone from 14 teams to 70, and it now takes on many forms with strands involving such things as robotics, embedded, photography and short film.  My favourite part has always been the original contest, which is the Software Development one. Nowadays I'm involved as a judge, as well as promoting the competition to students back at Hull, and I really love taking part and seeing just what enthusiastic people can do with technology.

Tomorrow is when all the judging actually starts, but today we had the opening ceremony which took place at the citadel in Cairo. We even had Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Technology officer give a presentation to the students, which was a great thing to see. That the guy who took over from Bill Gates reckons the competition is worth taking seriously is an indication of just how important Microsoft takes this contest. I took a camera a long (of course) and got a few pictures.

Outside the Citadel

 Inside the Citadel

The ceiling is fantastic

Joe Wilson gets things started.

The view on the way out.

Blogging the Imagine Cup with Flickr

I’m trying a new approach to blogging the Imagine Cup this time. I’ll be putting bits and bobs up on these hallowed pages (of course) but I’ll be also putting up shed loads (if you can load a shed onto a server) of pictures on Flickr, with the usual insightful comments.

From what I’ve seen of Cairo this is going to be great, follow the magic at:

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

Update on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 10:46AM by Rob

.. and of course I'll try to remember to tweet as much as I can: http://twitter.com/RobMiles