Tokyo National College of Technology Team “Coccolo” which placed 2nd at the Imagine Cup 2012 pay a courtesy visit to Minister Hirofumi Hirano

The Imagine Cup 2012 sponsored by Microsoft Corp. was held in Sydney, Australia this year. The Japanese team “Coccolo” from the Tokyo National College of Technology won the highest record yet for Japan, taking second place in the competition’s Software Design division. Upon returning to Japan, the students paid a courtesy visit to Minister Hirofumi Hirano, reporting on their results from the competition. (visitors included: Mio Okawa: 2nd year student in the advanced course in mechanical and computer systems engineering, Megumi Tabata: 2nd year student in the advanced course of mechanical and computer systems engineering, Shunichi Akamatsu: 2nd year student in the advanced course of electrical and electronic engineering,　Tan Tun Jie: 5th year student in department of computer science, research supervisors: Professor Katsushi Matsubayashi, Associate Professor Tetsuya Kojima.

The Imagine Cup proposed by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is a global student IT technology contest which started in 2003. Participants range from lower secondary school to graduate school. This year marks the 10th anniversary.

At this competition, over 350-thousand students from 188 countries and regions participated. Only the teams which advanced from the preliminary rounds held throughout the world participated in the final Sydney competition. The teams compete against each other by presenting their ideas and techniques through English presentations, Q&A sessions and by demonstrating their creations.

The Sydney competition included three categories of; Software Design, Game Design and IT Challenges. The Software Design division which the Tokyo National College of Technology participated in is a highlight of the competition and is the only category in which actual trophies are awarded.

The prize-winning piece: “All Lights! Power-saving lighting system with visible light communication” is a system which reduces energy consumption by affixing a sensor onto an LED light. The sensor is designed to detect light intensity, and automatically reduces energy consumption in areas which are already bright such as near windows. The team is also working towards the realization of enabling information exchange between LED lights to confirm the effects of electricity saved, and is also working to enable adjusting the amount of light through mobile devices. The students  explained and demonstrated the pewer-saving system, and were very busy answering the numerous questions posed by the Minister.

Minister Hirano congratulated the students for their outstanding achievement which is a first for a representative team from Japan. He continued to stress that MEXT’s most important task is to continue to nurture talented international professionals in higher education. The Minister praised the students from the college of technology for their outstanding achievement at the world contest and awarded them with certificates.