Jesus.
That was a tough few days there. First off was the final MSP
meet down at Microsoft Research, Cambridge
with some prize giving, some excellent presentations and some pizza. Then the
two Daves, Chris, Emily and I headed down to London in preparation for the Imagine Cup
2005 final.
That was the first time that the team had met up to compile
code, so the rest of the night was spent trying to fix the slew of problems
that ensued. I managed about 30 minutes of kip, before our 6.30am wake-up call
for the coach taking us to BT Tower, the site of the final.
After the morning presentations to the judges (and a broken
demo, unfortunately), we had time to set up our stands for the afternoon of
schmoozing with industry-types, press types and the other teams. It was
certainly interesting stuff, and a valuable chance to get some feedback on our
work. It was also a great opportunity to see the other teams’ work, something
missing from last year that was a welcome addition.
Avoiding this man was difficult, his not-so-subtle
photography style followed us all throughout the afternoon.
Congratulations to the winning team, Bitshifters, with their
blogging application. It was certainly well-deserved, though a surprise to many
who thought that Antranik-et-al’s music app would prevail.
The evening’s entertainment was the best I think I’ve been a
part of with MS over the past year or so. Free pool, free bowling, free arcade
machines, free food, free booze and let’s not forget the glow-in-the-dark
wrist-bands. MS staff had a friendly game of bowling against BT staff, the
result of which it may be best I don’t know. After some booze and the
presentation of some more prizes for a quiz on-going through the day we left to
head back to the hotel against a rather fetching backdrop:
All in all, an awesome time. Next year we’ll have no Luke
nor Dave for the team, leaving myself and Dave R to think of something to enter
for the Imagine Cup 2006. Third time’s the charm. It was also potentially the
last time we’ll see Caroline, Mark and the rest of the academic team, so we’ll
have to look at getting back on the MSP programme next year too.
Final thanks to everyone at MS for the four days, though
especially to Chris who’s been the guy running the MSP programme this year, who’ll
be returning to academia.