A screenshot of my Imagine Cup entry.

Slightly embarrassing confession: I just spent the last week that we had off from classes writing code for Microsoft Imagine Cup. I have an excuse: it’s tourist season and all of the hostels have ramped up their prices. Also, the deadline is in 17 days, and I won’t have much more time to work on the project with classes kicking back into gear.

I’m very proud of the work—so proud that I wrote a manifesto to describe it.

MDG Actors is our first hi-tech composition. It is as much programming as it is story-telling, empathy, and design. It leverages the power of emerging web technology to provide an interactive, playful experience. Its goal is inspiration, and it provides the jumping off points for turning that inspiration into action.

It took a lot more time than I expected to put together (so it goes with software development). I think the challenge was that I had to go all the way from the drawing board to a live web application. That is, brainstorming, code design, Javascript/HTML/CSS/PHP implementation, Popfly integration, user interface design, user interface coding, user experience design. Now I’m embarking on marketing (very small-scale, I’m thinking), debugging, and improvement until the contest deadline.

Check it out if I haven’t sent you an email about it yet. I’d love some feedback, even if it’s just “it doesn’t work on my computer”

MDG Actors by Team Curious

(also, another post coming as soon as I finish studying for my Modélisation par éléments finis médian tomorrow. It’ll either be about biology/meaning/religion or neuroscience/achievement/learning.)