Congratulation to Team SOAK from Australia! The 2008 Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Worldwide Finals Champions! You brought home the (green and) gold!
I am extremely proud of your final achievement! You have achieved a first for Australia! Well done, David Burela (University of Tasmania), Dimaz Pramudya (Swinburne University), Ed Hooper (Melbourne University), Long Zheng (Monash University)!
All the very best of luck to Team SOAK (L-R: Long Zheng, Dimaz Pramudya, David Burela, Ed Hoopers), the 2008 Australia Imagine Cup Champions during the 2008 Worldwide Imagine Cup Finals. I feel particularly proud of the quality of this year’s team. Here are my top 5 reasons why this team rocks:
Water, a real serious issue in country Australia. The team aspires to help to help farmers achieve sustainable use of their land by utilising sensor networks to ensure the best use of precious water resources.
Diversity, in the team setup. Team SOAK is made up of students from 4 Australian Universities, between two states (VIC and TAS) which includes Monash, Melbourne, Swinburne and the University of Tasmania. This multi-cultural team reflects the modern diverse Australian society.
Preparation. I know how early this team had been preparing for the competition. Ed has been aiming, learning and preparing for this competition since the 2007 Australia Imagine Cup finals.
Passion. This team is made up of 3 Microsoft Student Partners and 1 “bloody” Microsoft blogger. Common among them is a serious passion for technology, dream big and take technology onto the field.
Mates. This guys are my friends and I am proud of their current success. Anything more is a bonus. Good luck, boys!
Windows Vista brought a set of user interfaces updates to the Windows environment. However there are some inconsistencies and legacy user interfaces in the released product. There has not been an easy and transparent way to bring this irks and quirks to Microsoft’s attention. But not until Long Zheng’s UX Taskforce.
Long Zheng, the Windows and good user interface (UI) enthusiast (and all things well-designed) has developed a web site (UX Taskforce, see screen shot below) which allows you to:
a) upload screen shots and report such UI issues on the web site,
1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Munich, Germany
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Zurich, Switzerland
5. Helsinki, Finland
6. Vienna, Austria
7. Stockholm, Sweden
8. Vancouver, Canada 9. Melbourne, Australia 10. Paris, France
11. Sydney, Australia
12. Honolulu, Hawaii
13. Madrid, Spain
14. Berlin, Germany
15. Barcelona, Spain
16. Montreal, Canada
17. Fukuoka, Japan
18. Amsterdam, Netherlands
19. Minneapolis, United States
20. Kyoto, Japan
Key: Green - City I visited, Blue - City I wish to visit one day
Analysis
I’m surprised to see no mention of any east coast cities like Boston. Also there is a heavy gearing towards European cities but not totally without merit. Good to see Australia retained two spots within the list through Melbourne (#9) and Sydney (#11). With such survey, the devil is in the details (ranking methodology). My top concerns for these two cities to retain it’s liveable status are the housing affordability and the state of public infrastructure.
Related link: A Singaporean reporter response to this listing (mypaper, SPH)
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Monocle is my current fav mag read after I discovered it in Melbourne in Mar 08. The articles are original, well read and offers a diverse coverage within affairs, business, culture, design and excellent editoral (most important component to me). I also appreciate it’s compact size and excellent colour print.
A truly well made magazine. Check out the distribution link to see if it is distributed in your country.
Team SOAK comprise of David Burela (Microsoft Student Partner, University of Tasmania), Long Zheng (Monash University, blogger extraordinaire of istartedsomething.com), Ed “h00ps” Hooper (Star Microsoft Student Partner, University of Melbourne - I recruited this man into the program!) and Dimaz Pramudya (Swinburne University) are the 2008 Australia Imagine Cup winners! The 03 area code (VIC and TAS) won the day!
Australia is the driest continent on earth and the persistent drought has been hitting the farmers and our wallets hard. Team SOAK put their minds together to develop SOAK and address a real environment challenge for Australia.
SOAK is an integrated software and hardware platform with the aspiration of helping farmers achieve sustainable use of their land. This is achieved through the integrated use of environmental sensing, rich visual front ends to display the information to the farmer, and a subsystem which controls farm equipment such as sprinkler systems
Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment and SOAK is spot on! Well done, boys!
PS: It is a pity, there hasn’t been any pictures nor blog updates mentioned about Thur’s Australian Finals from the AU Imagine Cup web site or local Imagine Cup blog since 12 May.
1235 Update: Long Zheng’s article was updated and mentioned the other members of Team SOAK namely, Ed Hooper and Dimaz Pramudya. Guys, time to pick up that old Year 12 French text book.
Last month, I went back Australia to facilitate my manager’s return to work. It was good opportunity to spend some time with my key academics, good friends in DPE, took part in the Balmoral Ocean swim, Boy Charlton Biathlon series, Canberra 10k and caught up with my uni mates.
During that time, I had several opportunities to engage in leisure outdoor sports due to the cool early autumn weather (which typically includes flashes of SUMMER too! Yippe!).
Below are links to the different sets of photos taken during this trip.
Next time if you are conducting business travel in Australia, I would recommend Astra Apartments (serviced apartment between Sydney and Melbourne) and Fat Free Fone Company (mobile broadband internet) services.
Astra Apartment (Chatswood)
During my recent stint back in Australia, I stayed in their Chatswood apartment. The location was close to Microsoft office (North Ryde/ Macquarie Park) area and conveniently located among the Chatswood shops. The apartment was generally well maintained and decorated in a sensible and modern fashion. Their charges were reasonable (compared to long term hotel rates) and staff member was generally responsive and helpful.
Fat Free Fone Company offers fixed line, mobile phone and mobile broadband rental services in Australia.
I needed Internet access after office hours and during inter-state trips and found their services fairly reliable. It cost 200 AUD p/ month for 4GB of data (caveat: upstream and downstream usage INCLUSIVE) per month. It works out just under $7 p/day, much cheaper compared to hotel internet charges, accompanied with the flexibility of a short term nationwide mobile broadband rental.
I am not in any commercial arrangement with the above mentioned companies. These are my personal comments and should not be transmitted beyond my blog.
Australia Daylight Saving ends 6 Apr 2008. Are your laptops, mobile phones and PCs ready for daylight saving changes?
Daylight saving ends on 6 April in NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS and SA, a week later than in previous years. It recommences on 5 October 2008.
All Windows Mobile, desktop and server systems need to be updated by 30 March to reflect these new dates and future events such as Outlook calendar entries and scheduled tasks need to be checked after updates are applied. Windows Mobile devices will require an update to ensure they continue to operate correctly.
Following the 2007 Singapore Day in NYC success, the Overseas Singaporean Unit is organising this year’s Singapore Day in Melbourne (Sidney Myer Music Bowl) on 4 Oct 08.
Based on last year’s news article and this personal blog post narration (Part 1 and 2), it looks like a fun free day all of all Singaporean food, news, Gah-men people, fun and quirks. Check out http://www.singaporeday.sg/ for more information and to register for updates.
I wonder if the Melbourne event would have getai singing too? I bet the ang moh will love it
(Long Zheng)
