Why should I attend a 24 hackathon? 20 000€ that’s why.
Posted: October 24, 2012 Filed under: AppCampus, Contest, Imagine Cup, Store, Students, Windows 8, Windows Phone 7 Leave a comment »
Yesterday AppCampus announced that they would award the best app idea at WOWZAPP with a 20 000€ grant, for the idea to be taken to the Windows Phone platform. So in addition to all the expert developer support, designer support, great fun and a ton of sleepdeprived geeks, you may be able to boost your idea with 20 000€!
WOWZAPP 2012–No Sleep, Live to Code
Posted: October 22, 2012 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Store, Students, Windows 8 1 Comment »
It’s time to register for the greatest hackathon ever! WOWZAPP will be a chance for you to meet a bunch of fellow developers from around the world, experience the newest devices and amaze the world with your crazy app development skills!
The event is free of charge, we’ll provide you with the training, mentors, food & beverages and a lot of fun activity through the code-night! You don’t need any previous experience with Windows 8 app development, we’ll teach you! All you need is your amazing self and your laptop with Windows 8!
Check it out now at www.microsoft.fi/wowzapp
Imagine Cup Grants program– great support for finalists
Posted: July 10, 2012 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Students | Tags: AppCampus, funding, Imagine Cup Grants, support Leave a comment »
The Imagine Cup Grants program supports a number of winning teams solutions to go to market and realize their potential to solve a critical global problem. I just sat through a Imagine Cup Grants session during our learning session at the worldwide finals in Sydney. The session was really interesting and I thought I’d share my notes.
Imagine Cup Day 2–The opening ceremony feat. dancing Korean girl
Posted: July 6, 2012 Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students | Tags: Dancing Korean girl, Microsoft, Nokia, windows phone Leave a comment »
Woah, what a day! A lot of fun, hard work and a great opening ceremony! This day has been really busy and Team Matalapaine has been working extremely hard the whole day. Aaltovation and G3A on the other hand have been enjoying a well deserved vacation in the beautify city of Sydney.
Imagine Cup Day 1–Sharks and sleep deprivation
Posted: July 6, 2012 Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students | Tags: Imagine Cup, Sharks, Sydney, windows phone Leave a comment »
We finally arrived to Sydney! After 30 hours of travel we were quick exhausted, but that didn’t stop us from experiencing Sydney…or at least the places right next to our hotel 
We decided to spend the first time with food, sharks and just hanging out. Today the teams are hard at work, so I have some time to tell you what’s up..instead of interrupting the team with my “What are you doing now? What about? How’s it going”-interrogation.
We’re late – who cares
Our travel arraignments changed a bit when our flight from Helsinki got delay and half of the group had to stay overnight at Singapore. We took the most out of that time and decided to share our amazing jokes with each other and grabbing a drink or two.. When we arrived to Sydney we were welcomed by a koala that gave us some Sydney-love and escorted us to our transportation to the hotel.
Sydney – you’re so puurdy
I must say the venue and the hotel are amazing! We took a short walk around the shore and of course grabbed pizzas with local beer. Coming from Finland.. the customer service here is amazing! After getting our tummy’s filled up we decided to check out the local Aquarium and let me says.. WOW!
The whole aquarium was awesome, there were so many different species over there and the best part of it all was of course the shark tank, awesome! After listening to the suiting music of the aquariums and looking at the pretty fishies swim around we were pretty sleepy..but nothing that a few double espressos couldn’t fix!
Finish the evening off with an awesome dinner with the whole gang (btw what’s up with the whole “kitchen closes at 10pm”-thing.. kinda freaked me out) So yeah, first day was pretty much getting to know Sydney and having fun, today the teams are hard at work and tomorrow we will rock Imagine Cup!
Talented students take over Sydney
Posted: July 5, 2012 Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students | Tags: creativity, Imagine Cup, innovation, Sydney, windows phone Leave a comment »
It’s been an amazing year with all kinds of crazy events and activities. I’ve met so many talented students who are passionate about what they do and are ready go the extra mile to share their skills.. let’s say for example through 24h hackathons 
Now I’m in Sydney, Australia with the top 3 teams from Finland, these guys and gals are really something else! I realized that these teams have a few things in common!
Finnish Imagine Cup 2012–Software Design finalists announced!
Posted: March 30, 2012 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Students | Tags: Imagine Cup 2 Comments »
It’s been really great to see so many students get excited about Imagine Cup this year! Especially the Windows Phone Challenge has been intersting for interesting for many students around Finland. We’ve had tons of seminars, hackathons, codecamps and courses around the subject during the last couple of months. I want to thank all the MSPs, faculty members and partners who have been involved in providing our students with the best possible training. Who knew 24H events would be so much fun
But now.. something that everyone has been waiting for, the top 3 teams for Software Design who will proceed to the second round and attend the Finnish finals in Taitaja 2012. From there one team will be chosen to represent Finland in the Imagine Cup worldwide finals in Sydney, Australia!
Get ready for Imagine Cup 2012
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Software Design", "Windows Phone 7", Imagine Cup 1 Comment »
It’s time to start polishing your SketchFlow-prototypes and writing up that “Imma change the world“-document! Yes, you guessed it.. It’s time for Imagine Cup! Actually Round 1 ends in just a few days and I wanted to give you some tips and tricks, before the D-Day!
So you got your team, you got your idea and are ready to take over the world? To participate in Imagine Cup you’ll need to register to www.imaginecup.com and submit your files by the 13th of March.
You’ll need to rock the judges socks with…
A SketchFlow-prototype
This is extremely important! Please keep in mind that SketchFlow is the actual tool that you’ll need to use to mockup your application. As a student you can get SketchFlow for free through www.dreamspark.com And drop me an email if you have difficulties with DreamSpark veritification (for example, your school is not listed).
If you are completely new to SketchFlow then I’d suggest checking out this 90-second video from Channel 9
http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/LauraFoy/Sketchflow-in-90-seconds/player?w=512&h=288
You can find more great resources for SketchFlow from:
Videos
- http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX09/C01F
- http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX10/CL03
- http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/DES02
Articles
- http://electricbeach.org/?p=302
- http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Sketchflow-from-a-developer-point-of-view-part-I-Basics.aspx
and of course the always popular MSDN Library http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee341458(v=Expression.40).aspx
The document
Well, not much to say about this…fill out the document and you’re ready to go! Make sure you read the rules carefully and keep in mind the judging criteria, when writing filling up your document.
Listen to the Captain
You should also listen through the call with Jukka Wallasvaara, the Imagine Cup Windows Phone Challenge-captain! Listen to it here. In that call you’ll get some insight on how the competition will proceed and especially how Round 1 works
F.A.Q.
Q: I already have a Windows Phone application ready, do I need to create a SketchFlow-prototype?
A: Yes, for the first round you’ll need to submit a SketchFlow-prototype and the document describing your idea.
Q: Can I just sketch my application on paper?
A: Nope, you’ll need to create a SketchFlow-prototype
Q: Can I convert my Windows Phone application to a SketchFlow-prototype?
A: No. You can convert your SketchFlow-prototype to a Windows Phone application, but not the other way around. You can apply the “sketchy-styles” to your controls, but won’t make it a SketchFlow-application.
Q: SketchFlow is not a part of Windows Phone tools, do I have to pay for it?!
A: No. SketchFlow is included in Expression Studio Ultimate that you can get for free as a student. You can download it from www.dreamspark.com
You can read more about Imagine Cup on the official website and read more about the Finnish local finals right here on DiggTheDrazen.
Now go, run, get ready to see some amazing koalas and kangaroos!
Imagine Cup 2012 is here!
Posted: December 19, 2011 Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", Imagine Cup 5 Comments »
It’s that time again! It’s time to change the world..yep you heard me, change the world! Every year thousands of students take on this challenge and create something new that would solve some of the worlds biggest problems. I’m talking about Imagine Cup, one of the coolest competitions out there. This year we’ll be heading to Sydney, Australia for the worldwide finals, but before that we’ll have some kickass semi-finals right here in Finland!
Time to save the world–Now with extra kangaroos!
Posted: October 21, 2011 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Metro, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", Australia, Imagine Cup, Metro, Xbox, XNA 2 Comments »
We all share one same dirty little secret, we want to be superheroes. We want to save the world, cruise around in a batmobile and feel like we’re making the world a better place.
What does it take to be a superhero? It takes determination, passion, talent and courage. Of course having a kickass persona and a cool costume doesn’t hurt your case either. Imagine Cup is a student technology competition that aims to help students chase their dreams and change the world. Read the rest of this entry »
