Team Someday

On March 25, 2007, the Software Design Japan Finals of the Imagine Cup 2007, an information technology (IT) contest for students worldwide sponsored by Microsoft Corporation, were held in Osaka, and "Team Someday," comprised of students from the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, won the first prize. The team will participate in the Imagine Cup 2007 World Wide Finals, which will be held in South Korea at the beginning of August this year, as Japan's representatives and will strive to attain the nation's first victory.

All four members of "Team Someday" belong to the Division of Synergetic Information Science of the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Information Science and Technology: Mr. Osamu Shimoda (leader), Mr. Jun Owada, Ms. Kana Maruyama and Mr. Hironori Sakamoto. They launched their activities in September of last year and produced the digital notebook system "LinQ" by meeting between lectures and research activities.

The digital notebook system "LinQ" refers to a system that enables users to share "memos" digitized using an electronic pen and notebook and come up with something by consolidating and visualizing key points and questions according to certain standards. For example, when taking lessons at school, students will be able to come up with questions they had not thought of on their own by checking other students' questions; students will deepen their understanding of concepts by teaching them to others; and teachers will be able to easily recognize what students consider to be important and what questions they have by referring to this system.

The members of "Team Someday" cited the following as factors that contributed to their victory: knowledge and experience obtained through lectures and exercises about real software development offered by expert groups from IT companies, which were held by the endowed chairs established in the Division of Synergetic Information Science up until last year; and enthusiastic instructions during daily research activities and presentations at the laboratories to which the team members belong.

Imagine Cup 2007 website; http://imaginecup.com