Microsoft Imagine Cup 2004

The 4th Runner-up (Software Design Invitational)

PhD Candidates: Mr. Haibo Hu, Miss Manli Zhu; MPhil Candidate: Mr. Wing Sing Wong

Pegasus: Information is all around!

(From left to right) Prof. Dik Lun Lee; Mr. Wing Sing Wong; Miss Manli Zhu; Mr. Haibo

Mr. Haibo Hu, Miss Manli Zhu, PhD candidates of the Department of Computer Science, and Mr. Wing Sing Wong, a MPhil candidate, have formed the team "Pegasus" and joined the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2004. The team has won the 4th Runner-up out of 20 teams from all over Hong Kong. A trophy and HK$40,000 were presented to the winning team on May 19, 2004 at the Imagine Cup Award Ceremony on Microsoft DevDays 2004 which was held at the Grand Ballroom of Conrad Hong Kong Hotel, at the witness of more than 600 audiences.

"Microsoft Imagine Cup 2004 gives us an invaluable chance to turn our research idea into reality. We have devoted our effort to location-based service and mobile computing research and are desperate to see if any of our research ideas and results can be transformed into practical prototypes applicable to daily life. The experience in Imagine Cup 2004 is definitely a positive answer. We would like to thank Microsoftt Hong Kong for organizing such a challenging competition for the students and researchers in Hong Kong. In addition, we owe our thank to our department for her full support, and Prof Dik Lun Lee, our supervisor, for his valuable advice and guidance throughout the competition" the Pegasus team said.

This is the first time for Microsoft Hong Kong to launch the Imagine Cup in Hong Kong. The winning project "i-Surround: A Location-Aware Messenger Service" is supervised by Prof. Dik Lun Lee.

"I am particularly happy that the students took the initiation to join this competition. Within 2-3 weeks of time, they pulled together what they learnt and materialized their ideas in a functional prototype. It is not just hard work; it is the team work and the confidence that amazed me. I think the Department must have done something right in providing the students with a stimulating research environment," Prof Lee recounts a meeting where the students presented their ideas to him.

i-Surround

i-Surround is a location-aware information publishing and subscribing platform. Using location-aware techniques and intelligent information filtering and ranking systems, it aims at transferring information to anyone who needs it in a more efficient and effective way, while preserving user's privacy and eliminating spam messages. The platform can support various client devices such as PDAs, mobile/smart phones, notebooks and tablet PCs.

"Messages would be everywhere. Through i-Surround, we believe information can virtually reach any user who needs it without having the user to ask for it" the Pegasus team said.

The inspiration behind Imagine Cup is to challenge the world's most creative and tech-savvy university students to design the best new Web services solutions. All around the world, .NET programmers are proving that you can go from idea to prototype in less time than ever before. Both undergraduate and postgraduate students are eligible for the event. The Imagine Cup 2004 contains four categories, Software Design Invitational: local competition, Rendering Invitational: Online worldwide direct registration, Algorithm Invitational: Online worldwide direct registration, Short Films Invitational: Online worldwide direct registration.

The Software Design Invitational is to highlight and reward excellence in the field of student programming. This year the focus is on teams of up to four students working with mobile devices, smart systems, and .NET to create software solutions that improve everyday life. This is the only category that has a local competition.