Let’s face it, I’m lazy. Writing midterm exams is really time consuming. Grading them is even worse. So, in the spirit of doing just enough, we’re copying what we did last year, and doing a contest for midterm instead!

This year, our sponsor is The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company located in Somerville Massachusetts. Their recommendation engine drives recommendation, discovery and playlist generation for the next generation of music apps. Our guest judge and liaison is Paul Lamere. Paul is the director of the application developer community for The Echo Nest. Paul serves on a number of program committees including the International Society for Music Information Retrieval and UMAP 09. He is the Industrial Co-Chair of RecSys’09. Paul also blogs about music and technology at musicmachinery.com.

The contest will start Tuesday, February 23, 2010, and end Friday, March 5, 2010. Our students will work in teams of 2-4 to deliver a prototype of an idea and presenting in front of a panel of judges. The ideas will be judged based on their novelty, technical functionality, usability, and potential value to The Echo Nest and in general. This allows for teams to be competitive while acknowledging differences in strengths in terms of technical achievement (functionality), business savvy (novelty/value), and design/interaction (usability/novelty).

Teams will rocket pitch their ideas for a judging panel and the Olin community. Prizes will be awarded. Cake will likely be served.

The Judges (preliminary)

    Mark L. Chang

    Paul Lamere

    Stephen Schiffman

    Shannon Bator

    Reed Sturtevent

    Debbie Chachra