Novelty boarding pass. Photo credit: Jordan Knight
For the last couple of months I’ve been involved with a small group of students (David Burela, Edward Hooper, Dimaz Pramudya) in Melbourne to participate in Microsoft’s worldwide Imagine Cup Software Design contest for students and our hard work has finally paid off today when we were judged out of four finalists as the Australian Imagine Cup winner to compete at the world finals in France early July.
I’ve only had a couple of hours sleep today so I’ll just share with you briefly what our project is about.
SOAK which stands for “Smart Operational Agriculture toolKit” is an integrated hardware and softwares platform that aims to help farmers make the most of the water (and other) resources on their land. It does this through an integration of a wide range of sensors which gathers data about the environment in real time, provide rich visual information to end-user about the status of the farm, and electronically controls various systems such as sprinklers.
None of the individual components are exceptionally revolutionary, but it’s the integration that we deliver that separates SOAK from other traditional systems.
For example by gathering online weather forecasts about the property, if the weather is predicted to rain in the next 48 hours and the current soil moisture is adequate till then, our system can conserve water usage by not watering before the rain falls. Also as a precaution, is the rainfall is inadequate, the watering system will resume operations to compensate for the difference.
Obligatory screen teasers:
For the main administrative interface we built a web application with a mashup of Windows Live Maps and Silverlight 2.0 overlaid on top.
Of course I couldn’t miss a good opportunity to whip up some Vista Sidebar gadgets.
My team partner David has a bit more detail and documentations about the project. I’ll keep everyone updated with how we go at the world finals in Paris.
Update: Australian PC Magazine has just published a very insightful story on our project and the competition.
Update 2: We’ve also won the world finals. You can read about the whole Imagine Cup journey here.
38 Comments
TortulhoPT
Congratulations Long!
Keep up the good work!
Good luck in the finals!
Erik Porter
Congrats and good luck! Your project looks really great!
RL
Awesome work! It’s very much the future of farming. Brillant Idea, Long and Company.
Ian Ceicys
Awesome work Long and team. I competed in the first Imagine Cup and went to the finals a few years back. I destinctly remember working so hard that our team nearly collapsed due to lack of sleep after our presentation.
Long and team, keep up the great work…and if any of you ever want to think about joining MS definitely follow up with me.
Congrats!
Christian Liensberger
Competitors; we are going to win, not you
See you at the world finals in Paris!! Viva team Austr(al)ia!!
Matt Sharpe
Congratulations Long! The Imagine Cup is an excellent competition. Your app looks great, good luck at the finals!
Yert
@Long: When does Microsoft hire you?
Avatar
Nice, very nice indeed. and with vista widgets and all!.
Chustar
And here I was thinking you were just a marketing weenie! Good luck in the final!
Quikboy
Pretty nice. I love pretty icons. :^)
Is there a demo that we can try using?
Long Zheng
@Quikboy: Maybe we’ll do a more comprehensive demo after the Imagine Cup finals.
Kevinchen
很高兴认识你，龙正！
Chaitanya
Best of Luck!!!
bladeswords
Hey,
Long good work on the finals. I guesss you already know that…since I said that to you yesterday…at the competition…good design you didn’t put up a picture of ur sprinkler! Bust of luck in Paris…go Australia!
P.S. I found your blog.
Graham
Best of luck! Your team should do quite well.
Warren
Well done : )
xaml
That black MS shirt is nice.
About the project, great idea, but do you think online weather firecasts will be more accurate than sensors?
Chustar
@xaml:
Aren’t online weather forecasts averaged over a general area? By that I mean they publish the average weather for a particular zip code or region. Sensors would be more accurate in small areas. That is, of course, if I’m right about the online weather being an average.
@Long Zheng:
How much would a system like this cost to install and maintain for 10 years? (USD)
Deeps
Ive heard nothing but good things about your presentation! well done congratulations
Long Zheng
@xaml: Weather forecasts are not more accurate than sensors, but it’s used to predict the future. Our sensors cannot sense when rain is coming and how much will fall, so we have to rely on third party data to make that prediction.
@Chustar: This is a very lightweight software/server package that runs on standard off-the-shelf PCs. As long as it’s running, this is running. In addition, we consulted with an engineer and he said he could build an all-in-one solar powered wireless sensor for $100 each. Very very affordable technology.
Jordan Knight
Hi Long,
I fixed the caption – sorry!!
tino
Congratilations! A really great project. I also could imagine how usefull this would be for our garden. SOAK home edition could help to manage the stored rainwater…
Your project really reminds me of the early Longhorn Avalon scenario videos. Great!
Anonymous
The idea is not entirely new, as an older Microsoft competition for students was won by a similar project:
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS9173943327.html
Anyways, good luck in the finals.
Alan
PS good Luck in France
Roeburge
The guy second from the left looks queer.
P.S. Blogging is way cool dudes.
Dragan Panjkov
Long,
Is that interface designed using Blend?
Congrats to your team
John Anderton
This is cool. Its kinda similar to what the India finals winners did. Just kinda. They use sensors for agricultural purposes but to do different things. I ought to know. I came second
Are you coming to with team SOAK by any chance? 
Looking forward to meeting Team SOAK in France. I’ll be there for the Interop award
PS: Why does the guy on the extreme left look a whole load like you?
Long Zheng
@John Anderton: I’m on the team.
John Anderton
Oh cool, the interop award finalists have to just attend the finals. No presentation work
I guess we could meet then 
SOAK looks really good btw. Good luck at the finals!
Matt Sharpe
Congratulations on winning the imagine cup
John Anderton
Didn’t I tell you all along that you guys would win it? Ok.. not all along.. at least since we talked after you guys made it to the top 12
Where’s the party? 
Congratulations
secretGeek
Congratulations Long! Just heard you won the global finals!
Legendary stuff!
Joseph Wang
Congrats on winning the Imagine Cup Long!
RichardC (Hoshimi's Captain)
BUT: You forgot the cup!!!! (I see it in front of me
)
Ryan
Hey congrats on winning the Finals!! You guys rock!!
Scott Savage
Great work on the Global finals Long, awesome work! I wish I had stayed longer at uni and as a Student Ambassador now!!!
Steve
Congrats on your world domination.
Lisa Phelan
Well done Guys! What a fantastic achievement.
I’m doing an Innovation research paper on the diffusion of new products to the Australian agricultural community and would like to use SOAK as an example of innovative new tools available to farmers. (if thats cool with you!)
Also, how do you plan to get the word on the street? Are farmers willing to adopt this new technology?
Any information helps with the bigger picture.
Much obliged,
Lis
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