The purpose of the software design challenge is to highlight and reward excellence in the field of student programming.  This year (2004) the focus is working with mobile devices, smart systems, and .NET to create software solutions that improve the quality of developer life. 

 

• The competition is open only for .NET Usergroups currently registered with MSDN Canada
• One team per usergroup
• Teams can consist of between one and ten individuals.
• All team members must be from the same usergroup

 

The software design challenge will be looking for the following elements in each team’s entry:

 

 

• Participating teams must create and publish at least 1 Web service on a separate Web server. 
• There must be a mobile client application that consumes Web services and interacts with or contains the smart element.
• Contest entry must include a data design and storage element.

 

• The client must incorporate UI elements that enable users to interact with the Web services created.
• The client must consume at least the self-developed Web service described above.
• Teams may and are encouraged to consume other, existing Web Services.  The participating team is responsible for seeking relevant permissions and rights to use other external web services.

 

• Teams will be given 10 minutes to present their projects to wide developer audience over Microsoft Live Meeting
• Presentation should include a discussion of the purpose/benefit of the project, and the architecture of the contest entry.

 

Web servers may be public, institution, company or self-owned.

 

Contest entries will be judged in part on their abilities to showcase the Windows platform and the .NET Framework. 

 

• Web Services are served from a machine running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server, and the corresponding versions of IIS.
• Web Servers running the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 or 1.1.

 

• ADO.NET
• Microsoft Access
• SQL Server 2000

 

• Web Matrix
• Visual Studio .NET

 

• PC application
• WebForms application (ASP.NET)
• Mobile device client (WAP or Mobile Explorer, emulators accepted)
• WinForms application

 

• Windows XP (all versions)
• Pocket PC 2003
• Windows CE.NET

 

The use of PC emulators in leiu of hardware is a must, as the presentations are going to be done over Microsoft LiveMeeting.

• All participating teams must have a working demo of their application ready by January 31st 2005
• In between February 1st 2005 and February 20th Microsoft Canada will organize a mock presentation for each team, in order to get all teams accustomed to Microsoft Live meeting and presentation processes/techniques
• The regional judging will take place in February
o East
 Atlantic user groups
 Quebec user groups
o Central
 Ontario user groups
 Manitoba user groups
o West
 British Columbia user groups
 Alberta user groups
• The final judging event will take place in March(exact date TBD)
• Microsoft Canada does not require any code to be turned in for the purpose of this competition.

 

 

Judging event(S) will consist of

• The judges for this competition will be usergroups itself
• The judging event will be one simultaneous event for all Canadian .NET usergroups for each of the East, West and Central regions. One group from each regional competition will advance to the final round.
• The event must be held at a venue with high speed internet available.
• Each team will get 10 minutes to present their solution which will be broadcasted to all Canadian usergroups
• After all teams have presented, each usergroup will get 10 minutes to vote internally on their favorites and stack rank the presented solutions
• All usergroups will tune in either via Microsoft Messenger or Microsoft LiveMeeting and give their vote on the top 10 solutions.
o The top solution receives 10 points
o Every sub sequential solution gets one point less.
o The points allocated by each usergroup must be announced in ascending order
o Usergroups are not allowed to award any points to their own team.
o Microsoft Canada will provide a suitable scoreboard in full view of audience at all events.
o The usergroup’s solution which obtains the highest number of points will be  awarded Microsoft Canada Best Usergroup of 2005
o If there is a tie in between any number of solutions, the tie breaker will be the vote from the MSDN team

Note: Each usergroup must e mail the list of their top ten solutions to either Craig Flannagan (craigfla@microsoft.com) or Sasha Krsmanovic (v-sashak@microsoft.com) prior to going live on MSN Messenger to prevent any last minute changes and irregularities during the competition.

 

Suggested Judging Considerations
 

Judging of submissions should be based on:

 

• How innovative is the solution 
• How useful is the solution  
• Presentation    

Entries that are forward thinking in their approach to the problem should.  Programs that tackle a problem in a new way and take excellent advantage of .NET and the Windows platform will receive higher scores in this section. 

 

A higher score will be given to those projects that solve a compelling problem and “improve everyday developer life.” 

 

All teams will have an opportunity to speak on the technical merit of their project and share their vision for its future use.  A higher score should be given to groups that express the value and technical merit behind their project as well as their enthusiasm for the solution.

 

 

1st Place: 

• All team members will receive a SPOT Watch / Pocket PC + FM Transmitter
• The winning usergroup will get a Microsoft Sponsored BBQ Event in May/June timeframe.
• Usergroup Leader or selected representative will be sponsored for Dev Teach conference in Montreal, to present their usergroup solution to the developer community.