Students’ wildlife webcam makes Imagine Cup Final

Waikato students’ wildlife webcam project makes Imagine Cup final

A team of computer science students from the University of Waikato have made it into the finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2010.

Team eUtopia will now compete with three teams from Auckland for the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the worldwide finals in Poland in July this year.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s largest technology competition, challenging students from around the globe to develop technologies to help solve the world’s toughest problems.

More than 300,000 students from 100 countries are participating in this year’s competition, with the theme based on the United Nations Millennium Development goals.Teams have to develop projects using Microsoft technology, and present them to judging panels composed of Microsoft executives and industry experts.

eUtopia is the brainchild of Waikato students Laura Bocock, Matt Bird, Carlo Meister and Gabe Young. Their project aims to harness the power of ‘human computing’ to protect wildlife and help preserve the world’s biodiversity.

Using a live video distribution system, or liVID, with webcams in, for example, safari parks, zoos, marine reserves or native forests, the project will link conservation organisations to the public and allows for remote monitoring, private research and even surveillance of animals.

“People who want to be involved in the project can have the live webcam feed constantly running in a corner of their screen as they work on other things,” explains team member Matt Bird, who’s starting his honours year.

“Watchers can ‘tag’ the video when something interesting or unusual happens, like a kiwi egg hatching or a poacher entering a wildlife reserve. These tagged bits of video can then be put together for educational or research purposes.”

One thing that really impressed the judges was how the team had approached conservation organisations for their input into the project as possible users.

“We’ve been talking to Hamilton Zoo and the Otorohanga Kiwi House,” says third-year student Gabe Young, who’s a Hillary Scholar at the University of Waikato. “Hamilton Zoo are interested in using the webcam for research purposes, such as seeing what’s happening in the zoo at night, while the Kiwi House sees it as a way to better engage with the public.”

The team already has a prototype website up and running (www.lividlive.tv) and is working on getting the first cameras into Hamilton Zoo.

The project is being supervised by computer science lecturer Dr Angela Martin. “The team has done an awesome job with this project. They’ve thoroughly researched their innovative idea, so we’ve got our fingers crossed for the national finals in April.”

In 2007, a University of Waikato team reached the worldwide finals of the Imagine Cup held in South Korea. They had the opportunity to pitch their project Gary’s Lab, an interactive educational game that teaches the theory of physics in a fun environment, to senior Microsoft executives including Bill Gates himself.

ENDS