UQ students win first prize at international software conference

University of Queensland (UQ) Master of Interaction Design students were awarded first prize at the esteemed SAP TechEd DemoJam competition in Bangalore, India on Wednesday October 19th 2011.

This marks the first year a student project was showcased at the event, which is renowned for being one of the most prestigious enterprise software conferences in the world.

Head of UQ’s School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Professor Paul Strooper congratulated the students on the success of their GlobeMaster project.

“This internationally renowned award recognises the high calibre of talent and skills possessed by these three students,” Professor Strooper said.

“Congratulations to Mike Brand, David Harper and Thomas Nelson for being the first students shortlisted to showcase a project at the SAP TechEd DemoJam and congratulations also on their fantastic achievement of attaining first prize!”

The GlobeMaster project created by the three students is essentially an interactive globe, which provides the user with information relating to specific countries.

Master of Interaction Design student, David Harper said that the GlobeMaster project was essentially a giant trackball with a globe projected onto its surface.

“When users spin the globe, the projection updates to track the movement, and when it stops on a specific country, the system displays information about that country around the edges,” Mr Harper said.

The students’ project was produced for the Physical Computing Studio class in semester 1 2011, and gave its first public demonstration at the Interaction Design Exhibit in May.

It caught the eye of Dr Marek Kowalkiewicz, a research architect with SAP, who suggested adapting the system to include data from SAP BusinessObjects on Demand and entering it in SAP TechEd DemoJam.

The GlobeMaster table was one of six projects to be selected for the final competition demonstrations, from over 100 entries worldwide.

The GlobeMaster project will be on display at the School of ITEE's Innovation Expo on October 27, 2011.

Media: Madelene Flanagan (m.flanagan@uq.edu.au or 3365 8525)