Rhodes Team Wins in SIMagine Competition Again
For
the second year in a row, a team from the Department of Computer Science at
Rhodes University has been successful in the international SIMagine competition.
The SIMagine Worldwide Mobile Communication and Java Card Developer Contest is
run annually by Gemalto, Samsung Electronics and Sun Microsystems. The contest
is a showcase for innovative software applications that utilise cell phone SIM
cards and Java Card technology as a component of their operation. It is aimed
at both students and businesses specialising in the field of advanced mobile
applications development.
The successful team from Rhodes University comprised Dr. Hannah Slay and Mamello Thinyane. Their winning entry is called Mobi-Campus, and combines a number of typical campus applications into a single cell phone application. The Rhodes team was the only team from Africa to make it to the final round of eight entries, from the fifty projects selected for the second round of the competition late in 2007. The other seven finalists came from various companies and universities in Europe, North America and the Far East, including M.I.T. The prizes were awarded to the finalists at the 3GSM World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain from 11-14 February 2008, where the Rhodes University team was represented by Mamello Thinyane. The Mobi-Campus system was awarded the TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) Operator's Award.
Mobi-Campus is an integrated communication and access system for campus environments, which uses mobile technologies with convergence on a mobile device, such as a cell phone. Mobi-Campus implements common instant-messaging protocols (e.g. SIMPLE, XMMP), and plugs into various campus communication servers such as email, virtual learning environments and directory services (LDAP). It also uses contactless mobile technology for secure access to buildings and equipment. The system also uses this contactless technology to retrieve context-specific information for the users of campus information kiosks.