RIT students capture top prize at U.S. Imagine Cup

An RIT student team, from left to right, Joe Zhou, Adam Risi and Zachory Shivers, won the Software Design Invitational at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals, April 22. The students beat out 154 teams from throughout the U.S. and will now compete in the world finals this July in Paris. Submitted by Microsoft Corp.

An RIT student team won the Software Design Invitational at Microsoft’s U.S. Imagine Cup finals April 22 in Los Angeles. The team competed against 154 teams from throughout the United States and will represent the nation in the world finals this July in Paris.

Team members Ziyan (Joe) Zhou, a third-year computer science student from Guangzhou, China; Adam Risi, a second-year computer engineering major from Essex Junction, Vt.; and Zachery Shivers, a second-year electrical engineering student from Kenosha, Wis., will share a $12,000 cash prize.

The students programmed and configured a network of sensors to take readings of such environmental variables as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and set the system up to be accessible via cell phone.

“I would like to congratulate Joe, Adam and Zachery for this tremendous accomplishment and wish them the best of luck this summer in Paris,” says RIT President Bill Destler. “The system they have developed could have major implications for the advancement of portable remote-sensing technologies and exemplifies the tremendous talent and ingenuity of our student population.”

“The Imagine Cup is all about igniting the imagination of tomorrow’s technology visionaries and leaders, and inspiring them to harness the possibilities of technology to build a better world,” adds Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president of strategic and emerging business development at Microsoft Corp. “The contest provides student inventors and entrepreneurs with a launching pad for their ideas and access to key resources that can set them on the path to career success.”

This is the second year in a row an RIT student will participate in the Imagine Cup World Finals. In 2007, Zhou was part a four-person team that developed a software application, utilizing social-networking technology, to assist in foreign language instruction.The team also included students from Western Washington University, Texas A&M University and McGill University and competed in the software design category.

“The Imagine Cup event is like the Olympic Games, bringing together the best student researchers from around the globe,” adds Zhou, a third-year computer science major. “I am thrilled to have a second chance to compete in the Imagine Cup World Finals, and I am incredibly pleased that the judges believed our project was worthy of inclusion.”

The Microsoft Imagine Cup, founded in 2003, is one of the premier student design competitions in the world, featuring teams from a host of international colleges and universities that compete in nine categories related to science, engineering and computing.