THE GIGABIT CONNECTION

Saturday 15 July

After a l-o-n-g flight we (Team Derrick (Lotte, Nynke, Marc and Govert), Maaike, Wim and Gert) have arrived the previous evening in Redmond, Seattle (USA). On this first day, all of the participating teams gathered in the afternoon at the Microsoft Conference Center for two runs of their presentations. Exiting, because this was the first time each team got to experience the work of the other teams! After their first presentation, each team received valuable feedback, the biggest challenge being getting their presentation down to 10 minutes.

First presentations by Delft and NID India.

After some time for small adjustments, each team had to present again, this time in the actual room where the final presentations on Tuesday would be held. In the evening everybody went for dinner at the DesertFire, a local steakhouse, after which we called it an early night, still fighting off our jetlag.

Sunday 16 July

In the afternoon we participated in the Seattle Scavenger Hunt! Curtis, Mike and Georg, our wonderful organizers, had prepared a game in which we had to visit a number of locations in Seattle, taking pictures and solving small puzzles at each location. All students were mixed into different teams, making this a truly multi-cultural event. Starting at the magnificent new Seattle Library by Rem Koolhaas, each team then made their way exploring Seattle. Helped by the gorgeous weather, this turned out to be a great experience. At the end of the Hunt all teams gathered at the foot of the Space Needle for beers, pizza's and prizes. We then closed the day by visiting the Experience Music Project, which is housed in a Frank Gehry building.

Hunting through Seattle and enjoying the pizza's.

Monday 17 July

The first day of the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2006. During the day we set up our booth for the Design Expo and visited the Microsoft Company Store for software bargains. Late in the afternoon everybody went for a lovely boatride on Lake Union and Lake Washington.

Relaxing on the boat.

This included highlights like the "Sleepless in Seattle" boathouse and the home of our main host, Bill Gates, which is actually quite bigger than it looks since it is build mostly into the hill. Strangely enough, the big guy wasn't there to welcome us for a barbecue, so we had to settle for some sandwiches on the boat instead.

Tom's place and Bill's place.

Tuesday 18 July

The big day! After making some last-minute adjustments to the booth Team Derrick was ready to tell everybody about 'Mo'. They had prepared flyers and business cards and a BIG poster (sorry, Brazil) to attract people to their booth. Many people came to see their scenario's and experience the hardware prototype (SuperMo), which Marc and Govert had been working on so hard for the last couple of weeks (Thanks Martijn, for your help getting it fixed at the last moment). Special attention was being payed by the jury of the afternoon, the ubiquitous Bill Buxton of Microsoft Research and Michael Sagan of Trek Bicycle Corporation. In the meantime Lotte and Nynke were doing a last run through the presentation to checked if it didn't exceed the magical 10 minute mark.


Lotte presenting Mo to Bill and Michael, while Marc is proudly showing SuperMo.

Finally, in the afternoon each team had to present their concept to the jury and to a large audience in the main conference hall. Lotte did a great job presenting, supported by the wonderful Flash scenario's and animations made by Nynke. Everybody was impressed by the poetic quality of their work and the detailledness of their concept. All the other teams also preformed very well (all under 10 minutes!) and got an equally warm reception, each team receiving valuable feedback and support from the jury and the audience.

Lotte giving the final presentation, eagerly being watched by Govert and Nynke backstage.

After these exiting moments everybody got a chance to cool down at a presentation of the design of the XBox 360. Following a short evaluation of the whole competion, at which each team received a certificate of participation, we all went to Lilly Chang's house for a farewell party. At the end we all said goodbye and returned to the hotel. This was not the end, however, since the Delft gang and some others went to a local Karaoke bar, where we danced too wild, sang too loud and drank too much until we were kicked out at closing time.

All in all, this has been a thrilling and stimulating experience. Thank you Curtis, Mike, Martijn, Georg and all participants for giving us such a great time!

Contact

Gert Pasman
Landbergstraat 15
2628 CE Delft
room: 10-2A-19
phone: 015-2781966
email: g.pasman@io.tudelft.nl

Competing teams

Derrick
QPQ
Babel
Spring

Participating schools:

Stanford Institute of Design
Rhode Island
ESDI Brasil
Carnegie Mellon
NID India

MSRDE links:

Microsoft Research
Faculty Summit 2005
Microsoft Design
ID-StudioLab

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