Imagine Cup Judging

prof. dr hab. Maria E. Orlowska Secretary of State, Ministry of Science and Higher Education. And really nice person.

We did our judging today. I had what can only be described as a “Rob moment” right at the start. We were standing in the lobby of the Warsaw Opera house and someone said “Right, let’s head up to the backstage dinner”. “Hang on” I replied, with my usual attention to detail". “We’re missing the Polish Secretary of State.”

Who was of course standing right in front of me.

Oh well. Fortunately the lady in question dismissed this massive gaffe with a wave of a hand and a smile. One way to break the ice I suppose.

We had dinner on the actual stage of the Opera House, behind the backdrop, with the final going on all around us. Then, at around 6:30 we were ushered to our seats at the front of the hall and the judging began.

And it was great.

Jon Perera opening the judging.

All the teams brought their best game. They were fantastic. The judges came in at the end of each presentation with excellent questions and Roger kept the affair rolling along with style and panache. I’ve never known three hours go by so fast.

After that we retired to the judges room for our deliberations. At this point I’d like to thank the teams for making our lives so difficult. The standard was so uniformly high that we had to work really hard to determine the winners.

The judging team, from left to right:

Tom Keller, Gwendolyn Tan,  Rob Miles, Maria Orlowska, Dennis Anderson, Roger Lawrence and Rand Morimoto.

Great job guys.

Stepping up to the Imagine Cup Final

They have a chandelier collection at the back, just in case they ever need, well, a chandelier, in a hurry.

We went down to the Warsaw Opera House today to take a look and rehearse our bits for the Finals tomorrow. Blimey. (that is actually the most appropriate word I can find right now). Blimey. The stage is huge. You could fit all of Hull New Theatre (and I think I mean the building) behind the stage. The wings are so large I’m surprised the whole thing hasn’t flown away by now…

Anyhoo, all of the finalists will present from a platform that is moved into position and slotted into the stage itself. The are down here today setting everything up on their platform at which time the systems will be left that way until they are needed tomorrow night. I’m one of the finalist judges and I’m going to be on stage at the front viewing the presentations great fun.

Imagine Cup Tips

When you get back to your hotel room, hang your badge on the door handle. Then you will remember to put the badge back on when you leave. I’ve already gone down to the lobby twice without my badge, so I’m hoping this will help.

Warsaw Night Pictures

The sun setting behind the Palace of Culture

Warsaw station

Junction

I was hoping to go the the Institute of Industrial Design for a presentation this evening, but unfortunately I got back to the hotel with a list of things to do, and no time to get there before the event started. So, once I’d done all the bits and bobs I balanced my tripod on two chairs and a table in the hotel room and took some night shots. They seem to have come out quite well.

Imagine Cup Finalists Announced

There was something of a crush down at the front of the announcements.

 
These are the Game Development Finalists

These are the Embedded Development Finalists. Yes, that is a British flag. Well done “Team of One”.

This is the view from the stage as Roger prepares to read out the name of another finalist for Software Development.

These are the finalists of the Software Development Challenge

For the record, the finalists are as follows:

Game Design Finalists

· Belgium, NomNom Productions – Shift
· France, Green Gears Studio – Island of Nazeth
· Philippines, By Implication – Wildfire

Embedded Development Finalists

· France, GERAS
· Korea, RU Gentle
· Romania, EcoSynthesis
· Russia, MCPU
· Taiwan, SmarterME
· UK, eyesight

Software Design Finalists
· Finland, Signbook
· Malaysia, Team HDC
· New Zealand, OneBeep
· Serbia, TFZR
· Singapore, Mama-Bear
· Thailand, Skeek

The finals are on Wednesday, should be great.