Windows ChallengE was a programming competition run by

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

. The contest is composed of teams of 3 or 4 students at

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

from around the world, along with a

faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument) A faculty is a legal in ...

mentor. The only requirement of the contest is that the teams utilize the

hardware Hardware may refer to: Technology Computing and electronics * Electronic hardware, interconnected electronic components which perform analog or logic operations ** Digital electronics, electronics that operate on digital signals *** Computer hard ...

provided to them (an eBoxII from ICOPTech), as well as build a customized image of the

Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is ba ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

. The first Windows ChallengE was held in 2004, consisting of less than 30 teams within the United States. The goal was to use Windows CE to "Make the World a Safer Place". James Madison University won the contest, led by students Marcus O'Malley, Joshua Blake, Justin Creasy and Kevin Ferrell. Computer science professor Ramon A. Mata-Toledo served as team adviser. Their winning project was an airport security checkpoint device designed to help protect the millions of people who fly daily. The mobile handheld device collects information from a passenger's boarding pass and uses a chemical sniffer to sense and identify potential high-security risks posed by baggage or passengers. In 2005, it was opened to the rest of the world. 278 teams from all over the world participated. The winner of the 2005 contest was the team from the

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scie ...

(RMIT), Australia, with the "EverGreen" project. In 2006 more than 300 teams registered for the contest. The final was held in Redmond, WA, at the Microsoft Campus. In the finals only 20 teams participated, among which only 12 made it to the last day of the competition. The 44Tech team of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

won the contest with their project "Forest Watcher". That team was composed of Cristian Pop, Ioana Bratie, Omar Choudary and Mircea Gheorghe. In 2007 the contest became part of the Imagine Cup. Imagine Cup is a bigger competition, also organized by Microsoft, which is composed of several competition tracks, including algorithms, photography, embedded software.

References

Microsoft events {{compu-stub