In the 2015 competition, students were asked to “Imagine MIT” … 20 years in the future. Submissions addressed what education at MIT might look like in 20 years. And, how much student life might change and what technologies we might be using. The iCampusAccessibility and Team a14z teams both approached this in unique ways and presented their vision to the judging panel on April 16, 2015.

The grand prize winning iCampusAccessibility team of William Li, ‘G and Dhruv Jain, ‘G provided a vision for a more accessible MIT. And runner-up Team a14z with members Colin McDonnell, ‘16; John Peurifoy, ’18; Gabriel Ginorio, ’18 and Sam Van Cise, ’18 explored the exponential future provided by computers and virtual reality to change the campus experience.

About the iCampus Prize

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves living and learning at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life. The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance living and learning at MIT.

Further information on the iCampus Prize, as well as announcements of future competitions, can be found at iCampusPrize.mit.edu.

Presentations

The two finalists in the 2014 iCampus Student Prize competition participated in a poster session and gave presentations to the judging panel on May 2, 2014.

Daryl Neubieser and Michael Everett present OfCourse

Aidan Bevacqua demonstrates MIT Locate

Photo Credit: Brandon Muramatsu

2014 Winners

Grand Prize Winner: OfCourse

Source: Brandon Muramatsu

OfCourse

To allow students to create their course schedules, OfCourse allows for a quick copy-and-paste data entry, aggregates all the useful information from MIT sources, and makes recommendations based on course requirements and how much other students with a similar background enjoyed a class.

The start of the school year is marked by the (mad) scramble of students figuring out what classes to take next. MIT’s Course Catalog and Evaluations are difficult to sort and filter for each student’s needs. Other tools help pick out only what is required, and takes too long to enter classes. Other options only help when students know the classes they will be taking.

Daryl Neubieser, ’16, and Michael Everett, ’15 developed OfCourse to address these issues. OfCourse allows for a quick copy-and-paste data entry, aggregates all the useful information from MIT sources, and makes recommendations based on course requirements and how much other students with a similar background enjoyed the class. According to Dean Freeman, the head of freshman advisors, this would also help advisors make course recommendations.

OfCourse was awarded $3,000 as the grand prize winner in the 2015 iCampus Student Prize competition.

Runner Up: MIT Locate

Source: Aidan Bevacqua

MIT Locate

MIT Locate is a smartphone and web application that enables MIT students to locate each other on campus, as well as set alerts to notify them when a friend is nearby.

Aidan Bevacqua, ’16, noticed that MIT students are always running 5 minutes late even when meeting up with friends. Every “Where are you?” text increases the tardiness. Aidan developed MIT Locate for the Web and Android mobile devices. MIT Locate uses Wi-Fi access point data to allow students to broadcast their detailed location to their friends. It can pinpoint the exact room they are in, making it more useful than other social location apps. Users can set up alerts to notify when a friend is nearby or have arrived at a particular room or building.

MIT Locate was awarded $1,500 as the runner up in the 2015 iCampus Student Prize competition.

Final Round Presentations

Video coming soon!

More Information

Further information on the iCampus Prize, as well as announcements of future competitions, can be found at iCampusPrize.mit.edu.

About the iCampus Prize

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves living and learning at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance living and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and integrate them into MIT.

See the related article at MIT News.

The MIT Council for Educational Technology (MITCET) and the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) are pleased to announce WhichClass as the grand prize winner and Lounge and EduCase as the runners-up of the 2013 iCampus Student Prize competition.

2013 Winners

Winners Recognized

Aakanksha Sarda, ’14, WhichClass, and Abubakar Abid, ’15, Lounge, were recognized during the Office of Digital Learning retreat on May 17, 2013. (Sara Itani, ’12/’G of EduCase was unable to attend the award presentation.)

Aakanksha Sarda Receives Grand Prize Award

Abubakar Abid, ’15 Receives Runner Up Prize

WhichClass: Grand Prize Winner

WhichClass

Which classes cover the material I want to learn? Which classes match my learning style/objectives? WhichClass is an online exploration tool to make it easier to filter classes, and visualize connections between classes within and across departments. WhichClass was developed by Aakanksha Sarda, ’14.

In addition to it’s primary audience of students, the judges saw the potential of WhichClass to better to understand the relationships between courses across departments. These insights are especially important as MIT continues to explore all aspects of digital learning. Aakanksha received $6,000 as the grand prize winner. OEIT will be working with Aakanksha once she returns from her summer abroad to further develop WhichClass.

Lounge: Runner Up

Lounge

The team of Abubakar Abid ’15, Abdulrahman Alfozan ’15 and Aziz Alghunaim ’15 observed that MIT undergraduates across different dorms feel that the housing assignment process, particularly for returning students, is unnecessarily slow, manual, and prone to errors. As a result, they created Lounge, an electronic platform that speeds up and automates the housing process, while giving dorms the flexibility to preserve their individual housing traditions.

Abubakar accepted the $3,000 in prizes on behalf of his teammates. During the award ceremony, he also announced that Lounge was used to successfully run Maseeh Hall’s Fall 2013 room assignment process. OEIT expects that the Lounge team will continue to refine their software and work with more dorms to implement it in future years.

EduCase: Runner Up

EduCase

EduCase bills itself as the easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to record video lectures – no cameraman, no hours wasted editing. A professor walks into a class, folds open his EduCase, and presses a button for a hassle-free-lecture-recording experience. The EduCase team includes Sara Itani, ’12/’Grad and Adin Schmahmann, ’13.

The judges were very interested in the potential of EduCase to help streamline the process of recording lecture videos as MIT expands further into digital and online learning. OEIT will work with the EduCase team as they continue to develop the project.

More Information

Further information on the iCampus Prize, as well as announcements of future competitions, can be found at iCampusPrize.mit.edu.

About the iCampus Prize

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves living and learning at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance living and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and integrate them into MIT.

The 2013 competition is a two-stage competition. In the first round, student teams were asked to create working prototypes, and to define the needs assessment and impact of their projects. We have selected the five winners, which are described below, that will each receive a $1,000 prize. The first round winners are then invited to compete in the final round where they are vying for a grand prize of up to $10,000 and are expected to deliver fully functional projects.

First Round Winners

The 2013 iCampus Student Prize first round winners are:

• EduCase: EduCase is the easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to record video lectures – no cameraman, no hours wasted editing. Professor walks, folds open his EduCase, and presses a button for a hassle-free-lecture-recording experience. Team: Sara Itani ‘Grad, Fang-Yu Liu ‘Grad, Riccardo Campari ‘Grad, Adin Schmahmann ’13
• Lounge: Lounge, speeds up and automates the housing reassignment process at MIT. Team: Abubakar Abid ’15, Abdulrahman Alfozan ’15, Aziz Alghunaim ’15
• Terminus: Terminus is a text-based adventure game, aimed at teaching the player to use the command line with basic commands. Team: Michele Pratusevich ’13, Shawn Conrad, MEng ’13
• touchBase: touchBase has created a business card that looks and feels like a traditional paper cards, but its information can be downloaded to a touchscreen smartphone with just a simple tap to help admits find one another after Campus Preview Weekends (CPW). Team: Sai To Yeung ’14, Frank Ni ’14, James Allen ’16, Jon Warneke ’15
• WhichClass: Which classes cover the material I want to learn? Which classes match my learning style/objectives? WhichClass is an online exploration tool to make it easier to filter classes, and visualize connections between classes within and across departments. Team: Aakanksha Sarda, ’14

The judging panel included Edwin Guarin from Microsoft, Luong Hoang from Microsoft, Vijay Kumar from OEIT, Brandon Muramatsu from OEIT, Paul Oka from Microsoft Research, and Oliver Thomas from Information Systems and Technology.

Final Round Competition

The final round is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, 2013 from 3-6pm in the Stata Center. The final round competition will include a poster session to allow guests and judges to speak with each group and learn more about the projects. The competition concludes with a lightning round of 5 minute presentations by each group. Judges for the competition will include representatives from Microsoft, MIT faculty and staff, and others.

More Information

For more information on the iCampus Student Prize, and for details on the final round competition, please visit: http://icampusprize.mit.edu/.

About the iCampus Prize

The iCampus Technology Innovation Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves the educational and student life experiences at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance life and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and make them part of its environment.

The 2013 competition is a two stage competition awarding up to $15,000 in total prizes. First-round submissions require a working prototype—up to five $1,000 prizes will be awarded to the top competitors. First-round winners are then expected to compete in the final round – which requires a fully functional submission – for a grand prize of up to $10,000.

Important Dates

• First Round Submissions Due: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 by 5pm
• First Round Contestant Presentation: Monday, March 18, 2013, 2-5pm, Location TBD
• First Round Winners Announced: Tent. Wednesday, March 20, 2013
• Final Round Presentations and Poster Session: Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 3-6pm, Location TBD
• Final Round Submissions Due: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 by 8pm
• Final Round Winners Announced: Tent., Friday, May 3, 2013

About the Competition

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves the educational and student life experiences at MIT.

The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all currently registered MIT undergraduate and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance life and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and make them part of our environment.

About the iCampus Prize

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received an endowment gift of $400,000 from Microsoft Research on behalf of the iCampus research collaboration between Microsoft Research and MIT. iCampus projects demonstrated innovative applications of technology for revolutionary change throughout the Institute’s curriculum. Continuing the spirit of this collaboration, Microsoft Research endowed an award to recognize creative student projects in information technology that improve education, community, and learning. MIT gratefully acknowledges this award, and the spirit of creativity that it represents.

Coming out of this year’s finals, David Strom at ReadWriteWeb wrote an article titled: Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Student Software Contest Holds Lessons for Startups.

I’d like to bring two of the items he mentions to the attention of potential iCampus Prize submitters…

“Great presentation skills. Each team had just minutes to present its slides and demonstrate its solution. The better teams structured their presentation to match the judging requirements and also rehearsed their speeches to make sure they could deliver them in the allotted time. On the other end of the spectrum, some presenters sat in their chairs when addressing the judges. Entrepreneurs who aren’t polished presenters should go to their local Toastmasters branch or take a course in public speaking at a community college.”

“They got to the point, quickly. Some of the losing teams took too long to set up their solution, focusing on matters that weren’t germane to the judging criteria. Founders need to be ruthless when trimming slide decks to make them as crisp as possible. When you are pitching an investor or potential partner, make sure you hone your own presentations so that they are succinct and on-point. Think Twitter: If you can’t formulate your message in less than 140 characters, work on another message.”

These are two things that you can do to improve your presentations for the iCampus Prize

See related article at MIT News and the MIT Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education Newsletter.

The MIT Council for Educational Technology (MITCET) and the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) are pleased to announce CourseRoad as the grand prize winner and Dormbase as the runner-up of the 2012 iCampus Student Prize competition. CourseRoad and Dormbasewere recognized during the Institute’s Freshman Awards ceremony on May 17, 2012.

CourseRoad: Danny Ben-David, ’15 and President Hockfield
 

Dormbase: Alex Chernyakhovsky ’14, Cosmos Darwin ’15, Drew Dennison ’13, Isaac Evans ’13, and Luke O’Malley ’14 and President Hockfield

Photo Credit: Anna Babi Klein

CourseRoad and Dormbase emerged as the top projects from the final round competition where the five finalists from the first round competition were invited to present a poster and give a short presentation on their project. Judges from MIT and Microsoft evaluated the finalists in three areas: relevance to MIT, potential for impact and design.

2012 Winners

CourseRoad: Grand Prize Winner

Source: Brandon Muramatsu

CourseRoad

CourseRoad builds a user-friendly page where users can map out their classes through their undergraduate careers. CourseRoad presents the user with a vertical timeline of undergraduate semesters, and makes it easy to add, remove, and drag classes between terms. The site then provides a web of prerequisite and corequisite connections between the classes and visually alerts the user to any conflicts. CourseRoad is currently in beta testing. The CourseRoad team consisted of Danny Ben-David, ’15.

The judges were impressed with the progress that Danny made as an one person team, and thought CourseRoad could be a powerful tool for students and their advisors. Danny received a check for $6,000 as grand prize winner. OEIT will be working with Danny through the summer to further develop CourseRoad.

Dormbase: Runner-Up

The judges recognized Dormbase the potential Dormbase has to improve student-run dorm operations across the Institute, naming it runner-up for the 2012 iCampus Student Prize competition. The Dormbase team will split the $4,000 cash prize as runner-up.

Source: Brandon Muramatsu

Dormbase

Dormbase is a web-based system that provides MIT dormitories with the tools and services they need for daily operation. It provides reliable, modern, and user-friendly online services for residents, desk workers, and student administrators. The goal is for Dormbase to provide a consistent user experience across all MIT dormitories. The Dormbaseteam consisted of Alex Chernyakhovsky ’14, Cosmos Darwin ’15, Drew Dennison ’13, Isaac Evans ’13, and Luke O’Malley ’14. 

Congratulations to the winners and all that participated in the 2012 competition!

More Information

Further information on the iCampus Prize, as well as announcements of future competitions, can be found at iCampusPrize.mit.edu.

About the iCampus Prize

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves living and learning at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance living and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and integrate them into MIT.

The 2012 competition is a two-stage competition. In the first round, student teams were asked to create working prototypes, and to define the needs assessment and impact of their projects. In the first round, the winners each receive $1,000. Five of the first round winners have been invited to compete in the final round where they are vying for a grand prize of up to $10,000 and are expected to deliver fully functional projects.

The 2012 iCampus Student Prize first round winners invited to compete for the Final Round competition are:

• CasaNexus: CasaNexus will provide an easy to use interface for posting and searching for housing for the short-­‐term work opportunities many MIT students pursue to gain insights about fields or industries that they would be interested in working. Team: Connie Chan ’12 and Moji Jimoh ’12.
• CourseRoad: CourseRoad builds a user-friendly page where users can map out their classes through their undergraduate careers. CourseRoad presents the user with a vertical timeline of her undergraduate semesters, and makes it easy to add, remove, and drag classes between terms. The site then provides a web of prerequisite and corequisite connections behind the class modules and visually alerts the user to any conflicts. Team: Danny Ben-David ’15.
• Dormbase: Dormbase is an open-source dormitory database system that is flexible and expandable. The Dormbase project provides a dorm management system that can evolve overtime to suit the changing needs of the various dorms and their residents. Team: Kojo Acquah ’14, Alex Chernyakhosvky ’14, Cosmos Darwin ’15, Drew Dennison ’13, Chris Dolan ’13, Isaac Evans ’13, Dwyane George ’15, Chris Klingshirn ’15, Luke O’Malley ’14.
• STEMid: STEMid (STEM internship database) is a web platform that aggregates STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) internship listings scattered across the internet. Team: Ignatius Chen ’13, Melissa Choi, Roodolph St. Pierre and Marc-Dannie.
• Tango: Tango is an academic network that connects students to classmates from the start during class registration. On Tango, you can pick your current classes or future classes you’re interested in and see potential classmates and teammates also considering similar classes. Team: Ray Li ’12, Jessica Lin ’12, Sarah Rumbley ’12.

The Judge’s Choice Winner is:

• Nom Nom Now: Never go hungry again! Nom Nom Now allows the user to easily broadcast — and more importantly, find — free food. Team: Chen-Hsiang (Jones) Yu ‘G, David Ogutu ’14, Adisa Kruayatidee ’15.

Details on the winning projects, as well as video of the five-minute “pitches” given by the students can be found at the iCampus Prize website: http://icampusprize.mit.edu/.

The judging panel included Hal Abelson the Class of 1922 Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Jim Cain from OEIT, Edwin Guarin from Microsoft, Vijay Kumar from OEIT, Brandon Muramatsu from OEIT, Paul Oka from Microsoft Research, Pawan Sinha from Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Oliver Thomas from Information Systems and Technology.

Final Round Competition
Look for the announcements of final presentations in late-April/early-May 2012. The final round competition will include a poster session to allow guests and judges to speak with each group and learn more about the projects. The competition concludes with a lightning round of 5 minute presentations by each group. Judges for the competition will include representatives from Microsoft, MIT faculty and staff, and others.

More Information
For more information on the iCampus Student Prize, and for details on the final round competition, please visit: http://icampusprize.mit.edu/.

About the iCampus Prize
The iCampus Technology Innovation Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves the educational and student life experiences at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance life and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and make them part of its environment.

The 2012 competition is a two stage competition awarding up to $15,000 in total prizes. First-round submissions require a working prototype—up to five $1,000 prizes will be awarded to the top competitors. First-round winners are then expected to compete in the final round – which requires a fully functional submission – for a grand prize of up to $10,000.

Important Dates

• First Round Submissions Due: February 24, 2012 by 5pm ET
• First Round Contestant Presentation: February 29, 2012/March 1, 2012 at TBD ET
• First Round Winners Announced: March 5, 2012
• Final Round Submissions Due: May 4, 2012 by 5pm ET
• Final Round Winners Announced: By May 11, 2012

About the Competition

The iCampus Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves the educational and student life experiences at MIT.

The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all currently registered MIT undergraduate and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance life and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and make them part of our environment.

About the iCampus Prize

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received an endowment gift of $400,000 from Microsoft Research on behalf of the iCampus research collaboration between Microsoft Research and MIT. iCampus projects demonstrated innovative applications of technology for revolutionary change throughout the Institute’s curriculum. Continuing the spirit of this collaboration, Microsoft Research endowed an award to recognize creative student projects in information technology that improve education, community, and learning. MIT gratefully acknowledges this award, and the spirit of creativity that it represents.

The five finalists from the first round competition were invited to present a poster and give a short presentation at the MIT Faculty Club on April 25, 2011. Judges from MIT and Microsoft Research evaluated the five finalists in four areas: relevance to MIT, potential for impact, design and possible barriers to implementation.

Congratulations to all that participated in the 2011 competition!

Grand Prize Winner

Bookxor closes the feedback loop between students and professors for course notes providing professors analytics and enabling students to study collaboratively. The Bookxor Team consists of Peter Reinhardt ’12, Erika Bildsten ’12, Ilya Volodarsky ’12, and Calvin French-Owen ’12.

The judges remarked that Bookxor “adds unique value to reading online, add[ing] a sorely needed assessment tool to an instructor’s arsenal.” Of the finalists, Bookxor was the “best thought out, with big goals.”

Photo Credits: Jeff Merriman

l-Bookxor Team; r-Peter Reinhardt describes Bookxor

Runner-Up
The judges also recognized the contributions BooksPicker has made to the MIT community, naming it runner-up for the 2011 iCampus Student Prize competition. BooksPicker received a $2,500 cash prize as runner-up.

Bookspicker allows students to search for what textbooks are required for their classes, pick the ones they want and look for the best prices online, the Coop or locally. The BooksPicker team consists of Sinchan Banerjee ’11, Jonathan Goldberg BS ’09 & MEng ’10, and Rodrigo Ipince ’09.

More Information
Further information on the iCampus Prize, as well as announcements of future competitions, can be found at iCampusPrize.mit.edu.

About the iCampus Prize
The iCampus Technology Innovation Student Prize recognizes the innovative and creative application of technology that improves the educational and student life experiences at MIT. The competition builds upon the entrepreneurism and spirit of service exhibited by MIT students to solve the world’s problems by focusing attention of what might be improved closer to home in MIT’s education and student life.

The competition is open to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students, both individuals and groups. Entries must involve the use of technology to enhance life and learning at MIT, and they must be developed to the point where MIT could adopt them and make them part of its environment.