A Maltese team of IT and Computer Science students is showcasing a computing system which they developed, to representatives from at least 70 countries who are at a Microsoft world competition. The system links doctors in developed countries to healthcare workers and volunteers in third world countries, giving solutions to dermatological problems.
Team Dice, made up of Kurt Farrugia, Stefan Lia, Claire Dimech, and Daniela Cauchi, who turned 20 yesterday, is participating in the world’s premier student technology competition, Imagine Cup, which is being held by Microsoft in Warsaw till tomorrow. The group of second-year University students on Sunday classified among the top 12 teams in the world, beating Japan, China, Italy, Poland, the UK, USA and another 50 countries in the Software Design Competition.
A second round of eliminations held on Monday led the team to face a panel of eight judges, all experts and academics in IT and Computer Science, who bombarded them with questions. Team Dice sharply answered to the point but was disappointed not to make it amongst the top six teams when results were announced on Monday evening. Yet it has put Malta on the map with an impressive product and list of technologies.
“You are in the top 12 of the planet and YOU have been the ones to put Malta on the map and in the spotlight of the world last night (Sunday),” one person was reported to have told the Maltese team.
A stronger business model and attention to creating a faultless, secure system which stops unauthorised third parties from accessing personal data could have garnered them a few more points. Moreover, having tested the product and implementing it in practice prior to the final round of the competition would have been an extra advantage. These challenges were difficult to overcome given the time constraints of the students who designed their product mostly in their free time over the past six months.
“After all, this competition is mostly about the entrepreneurship of the students, their presentation skills, business solutions, the ability to sell the product and making connections,” Petra Boros, a manager for Microsoft in Central and Eastern Europe told The Malta Independent. “Their computer programming skills are a very small part of it”.
She also advised non-winning teams and future competitors to pay more attention to their product’s business model and sustainability while searching for local business partners to help them test their product and put it on the market.
Judges giving feedback about the projects at a press conference spoke of the difficulty to judge projects and the need of giving attention to detail.
“The complete winner is a team which follows the rules and has a practical business model,” they said. Meanwhile, it must clearly address at least one millennium development goal – the underlying theme of the competition.
Imagine Cup does not stop here for the Maltese team which has since continued to seek advice from the experts present at this technology competition. The team will also be attending classes and workshops focusing on the latest Cloud technology.
More information on the team and Imagine Cup is available on: www.mydermonline.com and www.imaginecup.com.