Winter 2011 Computer Science Student Geniuses

12:22 pm | Brown University, Computer Programming, Computer Science, Student Competitions, Student Genius Computer Science Prize | No comment

We at Student Genius are very excited and proud to announce the winners of the Computer Science Contest!

But first, we would to thank our distinguished judges for their time and effort in reviewing all applicants:

Peter Christensen, Software Developer at Groupon
Dallan Quass, co-founder of Junglee and WhizBang! Labs

Here are our praised Computer Science Student Geniuses from Winter 2011:

David Trejo

The #1 Computer Science Student Geniuses for Winter 2011 are David Trejo and Paul Kernfield (click their names to see their full Student Genius profiles) both from Brown University who worked as a team to develop Touch Tone Tanks!
Touch Tone Tanks is a phone-controlled party game for up to 26 people. They created it for the HackNY hackathon, where they won 2nd place. They also demonstrated it in front of 800 people at New

Paul Kernfeld

York Tech Meetup.  The keypad tones are sent to the game via twilio and websockets. They worked on the node.js and Twilio portion, and they have open-sourced the communication bits so one can build their own phone controlled game! David Trejo has written tutorials for those interested in learning Node.js with over 8,000 views, and developed school course catalog web application that allows for 800 students to browse over 100 courses. Click here to find awesome projects that David Trejo has worked on. Paul Kernfeld currently serves as President of Brown CS Department Undergraduate Group and has also won 2nd place at HackNY 2010.

Click here to find his webpage with impressive projects that he’s done.Both of these students have done very impressive work during their undergrads and we commend them for it!

The #2 and #3 Design Student Geniuses for Winter 2011 were John Bohlman from Princeton University in 2nd, and Haochi Chen

Haochi Chen

from Ohio State University and Max Stoller from New York University who tied in 3rd place. Follow their links for their profile and portfolios. They have done very impressive work.

We would like to also congratulate the other participants in the contest for your hard work and talents and encourage all to apply next semester as Student Genius seeks to find the top Computer Science Student Geniuses once again.

New Student Genius Intro Animation

6:24 pm | Design, University of Cincinnati | No comment

Check out the new Student Genius Intro Animation created by William Mata, an undergrad student from the University of Cincinnati. If you are looking for something similar for your website or business, post the project on StudentGenius.com and then invite William to apply by searching for “William Mata” on StudentGenius.com

StudentGenius.com Spotlight: Spencer Schoeben

6:03 pm | Computer Programming, Entrepreneurship, Palo Alto High School | No comment

Meet our newest Student Genius Spotlight, Spencer Schoeben, a High School Junior from Palo Alto, California. Spencer is a co-founder of Teens in Tech and is the developer behind FriendsOnAMap. Learn more about Spencer by searching for “Spencer Schoeben” at StudentGenius.com.

Winter 2011 Design Student Geniuses

10:18 am | Cleaveland Institute of Art, Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Student Genius, Student Genius Design Prize, University of Illinois | No comment

The results of the Winter 2011 Student Genius Design Prize are in.  But first, we would like to thank our distinguished panel of judges for their time and effort in reviewing all applicants:

Andres Parada – Industrial Designer at Gravitytank
Todd Chilton – Instructor at School of Art Institute of Chicago
Hector Silva – Toy Designer and Student Liaison at IDSA Chicago

The #1 Design Student Genius for Winter 2011 is Dave Pickett from The Cleveland Institute of Art.

Click here for his Student Genius profile and porftolio. Dave is currently in his 3rd year of a BFA in Product Design. His stated personal goal as a designer is focused on “challenging a client’s brief, not just responding to it. Going past the expectations of the customer and the client.”  Professionally, Dave seeks to “work at a fast-paced design consultancy delivering life-changing products and experiences to relevant consumers.” His personal method of innovation is to, “create new consumer value, with the right balance of functionality, intuitive operation and aesthetics.” Below is a summary of his work:

For our sustainability project, I developed a sustainable design solution that improves the total experience for listeners by providing: an exceptional sound experience by conveying the warmth and human quality of music, a better alternative for the green conscious consumers looking for responsible products that use sustainable materials and processes, and lastly by creating beautiful integrated designs that will transform the way consumers think about this category.

My furniture design project, The Nook Coffee Table, was very well received among the many blogs that it was featured on including Moco Loco, Notcot, and Design Sponge. The Nook has gravity defying geometry, modernistic appeal, and multifunctionality. As a piece of functional art, the Nook Coffee Table makes for a great conversation piece in any home.

During our brand identity project, we refreshed Hamilton Beach’s brand by: establishing a cohesive and harmonious brand language, introducing a memorable brand and line of concentrated products, and updating the brand identity for a modern era. I created a simple, low-tech coffee press, which generated a high level of interest amongst Hamilton Beach executives.

Fisher Price sponsored our most recent project, toy design. The project focused around creating toddler-feeding concepts for Fisher Price’s Baby Gear division. I designed and developed a portable feeding container concept for infants. The design generated high levels of client interest and was nominated as one of the top five best designs.

The #2 and #3 Design Student Geniuses for Winter 2011 were Kevin Wu from The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Carly Ayres from the Rhode Island School of Design. Follow their links for their profile and portfolios. You will be very impressed.

We would like to also congratulate the other participants in the Prize and encourage all to apply next semester as Student Genius seeks to find the top Design Student Geniuses once again.

MIT Celebrates 150 Years

8:15 pm | MIT, Music | No comment

The Guardian just published a great read on MIT‘s 150 year celebration. The campaign is called “Inventional Wisdom”,  what they define as a combination of imagination and knowledge. I like this idea of taking a term that means what you intend to do (make “Inventional Wisdom” conventional wisdom or an accepted term by the public) and changing it to Brand your organization or mission.

Check out their event’s site here.  It’s an interesting way to compartmentalize user entry points, but seems a little too confusing to me. I’m glad they included a simplified menu on top.  I must acknowledge that MIT has made significant contributions to facilitating student genius. The example I wish to use is the Rock Band story described in the article.

“Todd Machover designed an interactive system for Prince that the rock star deployed on stage at Wembley Stadium a few years ago, conjuring up haunting sounds through touch and gesture. Later, two of Machover’s students at the media lab had the idea of devising an interactive game out of the technology. They went on to set up a company called Harmonix, based just down the road from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which they developed Rock Band and Guitar Hero.”

Just a little game named Rock Band, that’s all. This and other examples of student geniuses are plentiful at MIT, so Student Genius will join the celebration by spotlighting a current MIT student genius. Stay tuned.

ASU Team wins Microsoft’s US Imagine Cup

6:48 am | ASU, Comp: Microsoft Imagine Cup, Software | No comment

Microsoft just announced the winner of the US Imagine Cup, the Note-taker Project.

The team consisted of Arizona State University’s David Hayden, a visually impaired student who worked with team members Michael Astrauskas, Qian Yan, and Shashank Srinivas, and mentor John Black.

Project: Note-Taker is an assistive technology to help low-vision and legally blind students take notes in class as quickly and effectively as their fully sighted peers. The project combines a portable, custom-designed camera and a touch-screen tablet PC to allow the user to simultaneously view live video and take typed or hand-written notes on a split-screen interface. The Note-Taker project was inspired by one of the team’s legally blind members, David Hayden, who was unable to keep up with note-taking in blackboard-intensive math courses.

Contest: $500 Computer Science Prize

8:48 am | Computer Programming, Software, Student Genius | No comment

We have posted a $500 Prize to be awarded in April to the most innovative Computer Science students this semester.

To apply please create your Student Genius profile and portfolio, then apply to the Contest and include a short paragraph summarizing what innovations you accomplished this semester in your field of Computer Science.

The top 3 finalists will be acknowledged as the top Computer Science Student Geniuses this semester and the winner will receive $500 and will be filmed for our Student Genius Spotlight (check-out our homepage for the latest spotlight). Deadline for applying is April 29th 2011.

The purpose of this Prize is to accelerate the level of Computer Science innovation among our students and promote the students who are making significant impact in Computer Science.

Our honorary judges for this prize include:
Peter Christensen, Software Developer at Groupon
Dallan Quass, co-founder of Junglee and WhizBang! Labs. 1997 Stanford PHD Database Research Group. With a focus on: Research in large-scale databases and extracting information from the Web, and creating leading-edge web search systems.

Rules:

- There are no application fees (no need to enter a bid amount when applying)
- By submitting an entry the applicant is stating that the work is their own
- Student Genius reserves the right to showcase the work of the finalists with their permission
- The winner will be interviewed via video for the Student Genius Spotlight (can be done at any location)

Contest: $500 Design Prize

11:35 pm | Art, Design, Student Genius | No comment

We have posted a $500 Prize to be awarded in April to the most innovative Design student this semester.

To apply please create your Student Genius profile and portfolio, then submit your bid/application to the Contest and include a short paragraph summarizing what innovations you accomplished this semester in your field of Design.

The top 3 finalists will be acknowledged as the top Design Student Geniuses this semester and the winner will receive $500 and will be filmed for our Student Genius Spotlight (check-out our homepage for the latest spotlight). Deadline for applying is April 16th 2011.

The purpose of this Prize is to accelerate the level of Design innovation among our students and promote the students who are making significant impact in Design.

Our guest judges for this prize include:
Hector Silva – Toy Designer and Student Liaison at IDSA Chicago
Andres Parada – Industrial Designer at Gravitytank
Todd Chilton – Instructor at School of Art Institute of Chicago

Rules:
- There are no application fees (no need to enter a bid amount when applying)
- By submitting an entry the applicant is stating that the work is their own
- Student Genius reserves the right to showcase the work of the finalists with their permission
- The winner will be interviewed via video for the Student Genius Spotlight (can be done at any location)

Offer: Free Sales Assessment with Kellogg MBAs

6:25 am | Kellogg School of Management, sales | No comment

Matthew Isaac, Professor of Sales Management at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, just posted an amazing offer. He is looking for 10-12 companies to work with his class (teams of 4-5 MBAs). The teams and Professor Isaac will provide a free assessment of your field sales organization. Check out the offer here. He is looking to finalize the companies by the end of March.

Earn $25 for Beta Testing Student Genius

8:28 am | Student Genius | No comment

We are looking for Students and Faculty to do a more in-depth beta test of our portfolio and Genius Teams platform.

Requirement:
- Currently a student or a faculty at a High School, College, University, or any Educational Institution. Must have a valid .edu email address.

We will award the gig to the Student/Faculty that best demonstrates the following:
- Interest in finding gigs/jobs for yourself or finding gigs/jobs and consulting engagements for your students (this is what you would use our site for)
- Skills and achievements that demonstrated ability to follow instructions (use cases) and provide feedback (skill needed to report bugs into the bug tracking system)

Please register on Student Genius and apply for this Gig. We are paying $25 for the winner of this gig. Happy Beta Testing!