Student competitions

Olivier Bloch, Windows Embedded Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, was kind enough to share his experience and observations after participating in the Imagine Cup 2009 finals in Egypt. He makes some encouraging observations about embedded designs and the visibility it is gaining among students around the world.

Based on my personal experience, I am a strong supporter of competitions for students. In fact, I can attribute an unexpected success in a computer programming competition (sponsored by Rockwell International), which I participated in high school, which “opened my eyes” and cemented my continuing relationship with computers and the engineering world. These competitions provided me with a way to channel many ideas into demonstrations and practical implementations. They gave me the confidence to try out crazy ideas and share them with other people. Almost as important, these competitions provided a platform that made it easier to be successful in applying for internships and jobs in engineering.

The impact of these competitions is so profound that I became a corporate liaison, judge, engineering mentor, and publicity speaker for several technical/engineering competitions. A challenge for these competitions is that they need a regular influx of new blood and corporate commitment to keep them running for years. It seems to me that competitions that span multiple companies and professional organizations have the highest probability of surviving more than a few years.

One such program, which has been running for 18 years, is Future Cities. The program has grown from humble beginnings from a mere six regions in the country to 38 regions last year that participated in the finals. They are ramping up for a new round of competitions that culminate with a national competition in Washington DC during National Engineer’s Week in February. I learned a lot over a few years mentoring several teams of 7^th and 8^th graders in this program, and if you can spare the time, I would greatly encourage you to try it out. You do not need to be an expert in cities – you can learn “on the job” with the students. It is a great project of discovery and experimentation.

I would like to encourage you to share information about any competitions, but especially those targeting students, here in the comments. You may even list competitions that are sponsored by a single company. If there are enough of them, I will try to consolidate them into a coherent listing. Without a broad base of support, these competitions run the risk of disappearing when the people who drive them finally move on to something else and lack someone to mentor and pass the reins onto.