Anyone interested in a software desgin competition?

[HotCarl]

$25,000 first prize. I was getting bugged about it at school and I looked at the competition. The Imagine Cup 2010 competition by Microsoft. There are several categories. I think I am going to try the IT challenge out since that is more of a solo competition.

I saw the Software design one that needs a team of up to 4 people.
Here are the details: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycom ... itionId=37

And here are the 8 themes (they are all pretty gay):
http://www.mdgmonitor.org/index.cfm

here are the design guidelines:

SOFTWARE DESIGN ENTRY GUIDELINES


To be eligible, your entry/entry materials must meet the following content and technical requirements:
Your entry must address a social cause connected to the 2010 Theme: "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems".
Any presentation or documentation that is a part of your entry must be in the English language. If a translator is needed, you are responsible to procure and to make usage of one.
Either an implementation or the consumption of a XML Web Service.
Your application must run on the Microsoft .NET Framework. You may use any version of .Net.
Your application must be developed using at least one (1) of the products within the Visual Studio family (Express, Standard, Professional, or Team System) for development.
Your software application must be fully functional and implemented (i.e., visions for a software application or software applications that are not fully developed are not eligible).
Your team’s entry must include or use features of at least one (1) of the optional elements:

Windows 7
Windows Live SDK
Use of Windows Mobile technologies
Silverlight
Azure for implementing a S + S architecture application

Anyone interested?

nope! sorry i have no clue about any of that jazz. figured id atleast respond since i opened it up

[xodusprime]

Hmm, that could be a good time, actually. I'm not really sure about the optional components part, but I'm sure something could get worked out. Thanks for the heads up! I guess we'd need 2 more to do a 4 man team tho.

[HotCarl]

Currently, in my new class we are doing mobile development. So far it is not too bad, almost the same as windows development except for a different form designer and less libraries.

so you making sweet apps yet?

[HotCarl]

Right now we are making a windows mobile password storage app. Basically it is a very simplified version of keepass mobile.

so far the most challenging part is hiding an showing the different screens, since in a winmo app you dont close windows, they just hide. So I have a stack of usercontrols I need to hide and show as the user interacts with the screen. It hasnt really be hard, but its getts annoying with all the layer stacks. I wish VS had a feature like photoshop where you can hide layers in the designer window. We are getting ready to integrate a mobileSQL database in it to make it more robust. Then we need to add complexity to the passwords and encryption. Finally it is up to setting up data validation and testing.

[xodusprime]

So you add a bunch of controls to a single form and toggle visible/or not. Can you put them all onto groupbox controls (different name in vs I think, but same concenpt) for management? Then you could just lay the boxes out next to one another, and when you needed to show one, you could change the top=0 left=0 visible=true. This way you could put them in rows on your form, and set something in the form loading to size it properly for the device you're using.

I've never programmed for mobile devices, so maybe I'm missing the mark, but it seems like it would be easeir to manange, if I'm understanding what you're doing.

[HotCarl]

Yea, for management we use user controls. The problem I was having in the beginning was the base form (the main menu) had a bunch of individual controls in it. I grouped them together in a panel so I could hide them all at once. I found out later, that I was accidentally dropping them in the panel instead of the base form so they were being hid at the same time as the main menu. doh! Finally, I made the panel 0,0 until I got all of the user controls dropped on to the form before re-enlarging the panel. Then the hiding became easy since I just did it all through code and rarely have to look at the designer anymore.

This project is giving me a bunch of experience with the Model View Controller concept. We are close to finishing the mobile app and are planning on adding a windows form front end and possible a web front end for the same app so we can mess around with syncing data between platforms. The visual studio mobile emulator is pretty cool as well. I can simulate a cradle and SD cards, and I think you can simulate GPS as well if you have the hardware on your comp.

Do you have a dropbox account? I could share a folder and toss in the solution so you can take a look at it. From my experience the only real difference in mobile apps is dealing with limited features and libraries.