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CSIDC Sparks Healthy Competition
The IEEE Computer Society has selected ten finalist teams in the first annual Computer Society International Design Competition (CSIDC). CSIDC 2000 required undergraduate students around the world to design a special-purpose computer-based device. The goal of this new competition is to advance excellence in education by having students implement solutions for real-world problems. CSIDC 2000’s challenge was to improve public health by helping people become more involved in their own healthcare. Prizes range from $25,000 for first place to $2,000 for fifth place, plus honorable mention awards of $1,000. Prizes for the schools with the top three winning teams will include financial aid components of up to $10,000.
The top ten teams and their topics are:
Boston University (USA), "Health Pilot: Your Digital Health Care Assistant"
McMaster University (Canada), "The Total Heart Care Unit"
Moscow State University (Russia), "A System for Weariness Condition Diagnosis"
National Taiwan University (Republic of China), "Family Health Guard"
Poznan University of Technology (Poland), "Health Care Information Appliance"
Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia), "AMADIA - Asthma Monitoring and Allergy Data Information Appliance"
Technical University of Plovdiv (Bulgaria), "Internet Appliance for Woman's Barrenness"
The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) "Personal Medical Expert: The Health Care Information Appliance Project"
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (USA), "Embedic"
University of Waterloo (Canada), "Diabetes Internet Appliance"
CSIDC 2000 had more than 180 team applications for its original fifty team slots. Each of the fifty teams received the same hardware and software project kit. The CSIDC "Health Care Information Appliance Project" required teams to create a working model of an "information appliance" (IA) to address a specific challenge in the practice and delivery of health care. IAs are devices designed primarily to create, send, retrieve and manipulate information via a network of computers. IAs are easy to carry, simple to operate, reliable and competitively priced.
Each team submitted a final report that was first judged by Submission Evaluation Teams consisting of sixty international experts from industry and academia, and then selected by a panel of judges. As Dr. Bruce Shriver, Chairman of the CSIDC Committee, noted "The CSIDC competition received an impressive set of projects from around the world using cutting-edge technology. These CSIDC projects could even result in groundbreaking life-saving applications. The IAs may dramatically improve the quality of life for thousands of people worldwide, particularly in rural or isolated areas."
The top ten student teams will now compete head-to-head in an intensive two-day competition held at its CSIDC World Finals at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington, Va. On June 26 and 27, each team will make a one hour presentation to a distinguished panel of judges. Students will be judged on their prototype’s creativity, usability and marketability.
For more information about the competition, visit computer.org/CSIDC.