Yesterday was the first round of competition for the 2008 Imagine Cup worldwide finals. This is where the students get to showcase to the judges the software that they have spent the last year working on.
The overall format for the finals are that it’s broken into three rounds:
- Round 1: Split into part A (yesterday afternoon/evening) and part B (this morning), the students get to present for the first time in each part. Each presentation is 20 minutes with 5 minutes for Q & A, and each presentation is to a different set of 4 judges.
- Round 2: At the end of Round 1 the top 12 teams will advance to Round 2 where they again will have to present to a panel of judges.
- Round 3: From 12, the competitors will be trimmed down to just 6 teams that will again present, this time in a much more public forum. A set of 7 VIP judges will determine who is the overall winner of the Imagine Cup 2008 Software Design competition.
So, what are my thoughts so far? Well I can’t go into any details until the results are known to the students but I will reiterate a comment that I’ve made previously about the Imagine Cup competition:
Throughout the Imagine Cup competition the students have built some software to address a problem that they have identified based on the statement "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment". However at this point in the competition what matters the most is being able to convey what they have done to the judges in just under 20 minutes. This means getting their presentation absolutely perfect – no mistakes, no issues with demos, everything has to go smoothly. This means practice, practice, practice and when you think you have it right, practice it some more!
Good luck to all the students for Round 1B and for the rest of the competition.