Friends! The summer has passed, but the good memories of him remain. One of these memories was the international final of the Imagine Cup in Seattle, which was immediately followed by three teams from Russia. We bring to your attention the article by Maria Sandrikova , a member of the MIPT team, in which she shares her impressions of the trip.



Nowadays, there are many student IT-projects competitions, but few of them can be compared in scale with Microsoft's Imagine Cup . Every year, students from more than 40 countries from around the world take part in the competition. Teams go through several stages of selection at the national level in their cities and countries, and only the strongest reach the final.
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A few weeks ago, 54 teams met at the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle to compete for the main prize of the Imagine Cup 2017. Including our three teams from Russia, assembled by students of Moscow State University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Higher School of Economics.

We, the MIPT team, will tell about our experience of participating in the Imagine Cup. We hope that we will be able to motivate other students to take part in the competition next year, because this is truly an amazing opportunity! :)

Long road to seattle

Each team has its own history of reaching the final of the Imagine Cup. So the guys from the HSE and Moscow State University became hackathon winners in their universities with the main prizes - a ticket to the finals, and our team from MIPT won the Moscow and Russian qualifying rounds.


From left to right: MIPT, MSU and HSE teams at the Russian finals

Members of the EverMind team from MSU met right at the hackathon. Alexander Safonov (3rd year, Fizfak) was responsible for marketing, and Roman Krivonogov (2nd year, IUD) and Daniil Iskhakov (2nd year, Mehmat) in 24 hours implemented a prototype of an application for protecting roads from drunk drivers. Inspired by the recent integration of Microsoft Cognitive Services into the Uber application for identifying drivers from the phone’s camera before traveling, the guys decided to implement several quick tests that allow people to determine whether they should be allowed to drive by eye movements.

The 3rd year students of the HFC FKN Artem Shafarostov, Ilya Soloviev and Daria Walter were able to bypass the other participants of the hackathon, having subdued the jury members with the Boremeter system for assessing the attentiveness of the audience during the presentation. The algorithm determines the location of each listener in the hall and monitors the direction of his gaze and the inclination of the head in order to measure the interest in the performance. The guys came up with the idea, working on a course project and were able to successfully submit it to the selection.

We represented the project MeetArticles, on which a large team of nearly 20 students of the FIFT MIPT worked on the Innovative Practicum training course. We have created a platform for interactive and visual search among scientific articles, which allows us to speed up the process of finding sources for research, identify current trends in science and find talent around the world. Beautiful and lively visualizations along with well-thought-out architecture solutions allowed us to win the Moscow and Russian finals of the competition. The competition has limitations on the size of the teams, so at the Russian and international finals we presented the project only three of us: Maria Sandrikova (5 course), Andrei Sautin and Alexey Zhuravlev (4 course). Keep this in mind if you decide to participate next year;)

Reaching the final was just the beginning of the journey for our teams. For three months, all the teams actively developed their projects and rehearsed their presentations dozens of times independently and together with representatives of Microsoft’s Russian office, Dmitry Soshnikov and Anastasia Makeenok, for which we are very grateful. And now, at the end of July, after 20 hours of flight, our teams found themselves in the heart of Microsoft in Redmond at the final, for which they had been preparing for so long.

Competition pattern

The competition itself took place in two days, and its scheme was somewhat similar to the World Cup. It all started with the exhibition, during which several jury members approached each team and evaluated the project demonstration from a technical point of view. 32 teams out of 54 went to the next stage, and within groups of 4 teams, the struggle to reach the semi-final unfolded. Each stage was evaluated by independent jury brigades. Two projects that did not go directly to the semifinals had a chance to get their vouchers after all, having won the audience award. In the final, 4 of the most persistent teams met to fight for the grand prize of $ 100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Exhibition

The exhibition is a very entertaining and lively event. Each team had its own small space, which they used at their discretion. Someone attracted the attention of colorful roll-ups, others - unusual designs, interesting costumes or good handouts: sweets, brochures and stickers.


Technical exhibition of projects

During the exhibition, the teams communicate not only with the jury, but also with the press and bloggers, and get acquainted with other participants of the competition. New acquaintances and communication - one of the main advantages of the Imagine Cup. No one leaves Seattle without new acquaintances with people from all over the world.

Wildcard round

The most dynamic stage of the competition is Pitch Battle. He allowed to reach the semifinals bypassing the fight in the quarterfinals. Each team was given only 2 minutes and a microphone to present their project to the other participants, who then chose the winner themselves.

Our team from Moscow State University won this stage, beating more than 20 teams from around the world. Roma managed to conquer everyone with his story and, most importantly, make the whole room laugh. Later we learned from Roma that he was very worried during the performance, although it was completely unnoticeable from the auditorium.


Pitch Battle, on the left Roma from the EverMind team

Roman Krivonogov, a member of the EverMind MSU team:

I knew the text that should have been spoken, I rehearsed long and hard, I encouraged myself and still could not help myself: my hands and feet shook as if I had jackhammers instead of them. I thought that I would drop the microphone and prayed that the text would not fly out of my head. He, of course, flew.

Presentations

Semifinals and quarter finals were held in the form of presentations. The teams were given 10 minutes per performance: 5 minutes for the presentation and demonstration and 5 minutes for answers to the jury questions.

Our teams prepared for this stage for several months before the final. Evaluation criteria were known in advance and it was necessary to have time to highlight all the questions indicated in them:

• 50% - Technology and Implementation
• 20% - Innovation
• 15% - Relevance
• 15% - Market Entry Plan

It was very difficult to put his whole story in 5 minutes. I wanted so much to have time to convey to the members of the jury in order to present my project in the best light, to meet the criteria and to have time to demonstrate the decision. Therefore, we rehearsed ourselves again and again at home and with the rest of the teams in the Microsoft office for several months.

Our two teams participated in these stages: we (MFTI) in the quarterfinal and MSU in the semifinals , but unfortunately, our teams could not go further.

The winners were the X.GLU team from the Czech Republic. They made a blood glucose meter and a mobile app for gamifying the process of monitoring glucose levels in children with diabetes. The second and third place was taken by teams from America and Argentina. Look at the presentation of the finalists here .


Four finalist teams on the left, winners on the right, X.GLU team from the Czech Republic

It is worth noting that this year the competition jury preferred projects related to social topics and health. So two of the four teams that reached the final represented projects related to health. A team from Argentina helped to find people during emergencies with the help of quadcopters. Perhaps this will help you choose the right idea for your project next year;)

In addition to competitions

In addition to the competitive component, the Imagine Cup is a great way to make new acquaintances, share your ideas with the world, collect a lot of feedback and useful tips, and listen to instructions from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The party after the end of the competition was a great way to get to know better than other participants, which was, in our opinion, one of the main advantages of the competition.

Andrei Sautin, member of the MIPT MeetArticles team:

This year's competition was held in record time (2 days instead of 4 days last year and weeks earlier.) Nevertheless, even this time was enough to feel that you came not just to the competition, but also to some sort of summer student camp, the camp of ambitious creative peers, like-minded people. Communication with them is not only an excellent practice of English and other foreign languages, but also a great opportunity to learn a lot about other countries and cultures, have fun and, most importantly, find friends around the world.

Left Satya Nadella with participants, right party after the competition

Many participants, thanks to the competition, first visited America and continued their journey to other cities after the competition. This little adventure was a great end to our long journey to the final of the Imagine Cup.


Russian team Imagine Cup 2017

I hope that our history will encourage even more students to take part in the Imagine Cup next year, and the Russian teams will be able to beat everyone in the final. Do not postpone your ideas for the future, gather a team of like-minded people and present them to the world right now! Do not miss the great opportunity to gain experience and see the world.

Maria Sandrikova, mashaka
member of the MFTI MeetArticles team