First All-woman Team to Reach Imagine Cup Finals
“Microsoft, a company always interested in young software developers, likes to encourage them to tackle real-world problems,” writes the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Josh Fischman. “That’s the goal of its worldwide student competition, the Imagine Cup, and the U.S. winners were announced earlier this month … The first runner-up was also the first all-women team to reach the finals in the cup’s seven-year history. From DePauw University, Team MangoBunnies developed software that helps HIV and AIDS patients by sending medication schedules and instructions directly to their smartphones or PDA’s. It also retrieves information about user history.”
DePauw University students Erin Donahue and Ashley Myers and their team, “MangoBunnies,” received the first runner-up prize in the U.S. finals of Imagine Cup, Microsoft Corp.’s annual global student technology competition. Donahue, a DePauw senior, and Myers, who is a junior, are joined on the MangoBunnies team by Malisa Vongskul, a student at Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). They win their choice of $4,000 cash or $8,000 towards a National Collegiate Inventor and Innovator’s Alliance e-team grant for further development of their project.
The first all-female team to advance to the finals of the competition, MangoBunnies created a software application, called Computer-Assisted Medication Regimen Adherence (CAMRA), to assist HIV/AIDS patients who must undergo complex medication regimens. The software works like an alarm system: a patient can enter his or her medications, which can number in the dozens, on a schedule in his or her phone. When the time comes to take the medication, the phone rings or vibrates. It’s a simple yet effective solution to regimen adherence made possible by the ubiquitousness of mobile technology.
Imagine Cup inspires students to use their creativity to help change the world for the better by discovering new ways to use technology to address real-world issues. This year’s theme centers on the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals, which outline some of the hardest challenges in the world today, such as fighting hunger and poverty and eradicating AIDS, as well as improving education, maternal health and environmental sustainability.
Gloria Childress Townsend, the DePauw ACM-W Student Chapter Sponsor, writes that all three women belonged to the ACM-W student chapter before Malisa transferred to IUPUI. Erin and Ashley chaired the organization the last two years.
” The women’s success demonstrates the power of our national-level organizations for women in computing. Among other features, the organizations build confidence, provide structure for women to gain experience with presentation and research skills and learn about opportunities for participation. All three women participated in the last Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing (INWIC), giving a robotics workshop, a poster and two Lightning Talks. (INWIC is an instance of the ACM-W project, Small Regional Celebrations of Women in Computing.)
Erin and Ashley attended the 2009 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC09), where they served as Twitterers and filmed interviews for YouTube, while soaking up the GHC atmosphere that convinces so many young women that they are members of the Computing Clubhouse and can and should enjoy all privileges of the membership. A local ACM-W chapter meeting last fall provided information to the women about the Imagine Cup. The partnership of GHC, Student ACM-W Chapters and Small Regional Celebrations demonstrates (by the three students’ success) the strength and influence of an alliance of projects and organizations to change the lives of women in computing. “
