Chris Alexander
5th October, 2010
Today’s #uktechdays coverage is sponsored by Mobile Phone Checker, helping you find the best mobile phone contract deals.
En-route to the UK Tech Days event in London todayI had the opportunity to speak to Josh Homerston, a student at the University of Reading who was invited to the day as part of a competition called the Imagine Cup. I asked him about the competition, the event, and what he’s looking forward to most.
The Imagine Cup is a competition for students from all over the world to make use of technology to make the world a better place. “Our solution is to help reunite refugees separated from their families all over the world” says Josh. “Aid agencies will have desktop and laptop computers to moderate the situation” of reuniting displaced people with their families. “We will be using Windows Phone 7 to capture data, and Windows Azure for cloud storage”. When asked about the technology stack, the team’s motives for using the chosen software is clear. “We’re trying to use the technology in the way envisioned by the engineers who wrote it. Using .NET makes data communication and storage with the platforms extremely easy”. But the hurdles they face are not easy. “We envisage that connectivity will be the biggest issue. We don’t think power will, however, as we expect good battery life from the mobile devices as we will be writing for languages optimized to run them.”
As for the event today, it’s a new adventure for the team. “I’m looking forward to Steve Ballmer’s keynote, and meeting other Imagine Cup competitors. I expect the day to be a showpiece for the various technologies on offer.”
You can follow my #uktechdays coverage on the blog or on my Twitter account @chris_alexander.