The Java Jive Challenge 2007 – Web 2.0 Category
Team: Paparazzi
School: Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Team Members: Tan Wei Li Scott, Chong Zheng Long, Chen Hao Yang Edison, Xu Ying Ken

It was the start of the school term. In our hands, we had a form for the Java Jive Challenge 2007. We knew each other from distinction presentations and shared a common interest in Java. We decided to take up this challenge and immediately started brainstorming for ideas. But we had a problem. What was Web 2.0 about? Luckily, Sun Microsystems organized a seminar for us at the Java Jive Challenge opening ceremony. We were introduced to the various concepts of Web 2.0 and software such as NetBeans and Solaris.

A number of ideas entered our minds including a Matrix-like web-based database and a P2P web social browser. However, after some research, we discovered there were a number of similar ideas in the market. We were stumped. What could we do? One day, the light bulb in our heads lit up when our supervisor, Mr Lee Chit Boon talked to us about the use of GPS to track and control traffic. If GPS can be used to track traffic, why can’t we use it for people instead of cars? People could tell one another where they were and they would be more closely connected to each other. When we saw a dog "marking" his spot, we immediately knew what to call our project.

"Paparazzi" literally means "group of reporters" in Mandarin. We would tag our users with little electronic "puppies" which would help the users broadcast themselves. In line with the theme of this year’s Java Jive Challenge, "Jiving to the Beat of the Participation Age", our application would allow users to share, contribute, and discuss. This participation will build up a community for our users, intertwining the real world and the world of "Paparazzi".

One of the main problems we faced during development was the lack of time as this project was handled concurrently with our school work. In the first two weeks, we only finalized our idea, and drafted our User Interface (UI). It was only during the third week, our school break, that development of the application really started. We fully utilized our time and worked from 9am to 9pm.

We all were experts in different areas and contributed to the project in different but equal ways. Ken was our leader who handled our overall integration and the use of GoogleMap. Edison was our database expert who helped with our layout of the business logic. Zheng Long was our mobile developer, working extensively to fit the usage of GPS technology into our application. Scott designed the UI and handled how our application would be presented to our users. Lunch and dinner was hastily settled with McDonald’s as we knew we had to make full use of this time. Once the break was over, we could no longer enjoy this luxury. Technical difficulties such as the integration of Nokia GPS API, GoogleMap and the actual deployment onto the Solaris machine were solved with the help of online resources such as community forums, and our supervisor.

The days went by and it was Judging Day, our preliminaries. We had prepared and rehearsed our presentation countless times. We had to ensure that there would be no room for errors. But alas, all our preparation could not prepare us for the set-up problems on the spot. It seems that our router was not compatible with their network. After our presentation, the judges seemed pretty happy and interested and gave invaluable feedback. But, we were still wondering, will we make it to the Finals? Will the technical errors we experienced be the cause of our loss?

Finally, it was time for the announcement of the results. Our hearts beat rapidly, our excitement could be seen. First, the category awards were announced. "The winner of the Technology award is … Paparazzi". Our hearts dropped from the height we had pushed it to. Other groups who won the category awards didn’t make it the finals. If we won the Technology award, could we still be in the Finals? Then it was time to announce the finalists. We were not too excited as we were pretty convinced we were not going to make it. To our utmost surprise and joy, we were announced as one of the finalists! It seemed that one could win a category award and still go into the finals.

And thus we continued our development for another month, refining our project all this while…

Finally, it was the time to separate the winners from the losers.

It was a special day, We were fully prepared, and ready to go. Basked in the sunlight as we marched towards our battlefield, our minds were filled with visions of our bright future. It seems that the very sun was smiling at us, telling us that we will win. The very air was filled with nervousness; the world seemed to have held its breath for this very day. It seems that this short day will be forever etched into eternity.

We stepped into the grand ballroom. Under the eyes of the many professional developers there, we went to our booth, and started our eight hour long exhibition… Our preparation paid off, and we were able to showcase Paparazzi to the representatives of the various industries. We were not disappointed. Paparazzi had caught the eyes of our audience. Of course, our mascot’s performance had contributed significantly to our success.

About 10am, the team of judges who will decide our fate had arrived. After the demonstration of our application, their satisfied smiles became both our motivation and our reward.

After which, we proceeded to the stage to demonstrate our application to the 400 guests present. We had to demonstrate our past two months of effort in the next 5 minutes. As the Chinese saying goes, "1 minute on the stage is equivalent to 10 years off ". Our repeated rehearsals and continuously refined content were all for these 5 minutes. We were not disappointed. Our efforts were rewarded with deafening applause.

In the year 2007 July the 18th 1:30 PM, we experienced the most unforgettable 30 minutes in our life. Under the approving eyes of the audience and the judges, we stepped onto the stage to accept this holy honor bestowed unto us. Yes, we have won!

Even though the competition has ended, our bright future has just begun…

View Paparazzi’s Application Demo Video

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The Java Jive Challenge 2007 – Mobile Category
Team: Juxtaposer
School: Temasek Polytechnic
Team members: Ang Chin Yang Darren, Tan Xue Ying Serene, Goh Chew Yan

Being in the Java Jive Challenge 2007 has been quite an amazing experience for us. We started working on our project about 4 months ago. The idea of jWatch came from discussions with our lecturer. We followed up on the idea to create what we have right now and we are hoping to continue enhancing the project.

The project came about because we realised that people these days are always on the go, and many people are traveling more frequently. We wanted to develop something convenient and cost effective that would allow people to be entertained while traveling, using their mobile devices.

The idea also came from day to day events in our own experience. For instance, when we travel on the bus to and fro the polytechnic we watch TVMobile. Sometimes we have to alight just when the climax of a show is approaching and that ruins the whole experience.

The application we have developed enables people to watch TV on the go on their mobile devices wherever they are in the world.

jWatch is an application created to make the viewing of videos on wi-fi enabled mobile devices simple, easy and cost effective through the use of a wireless peer to peer network. Which means, with the introduction of our application to a wi-fi enabled mobile device, the user will be able to view videos on the go anytime, anywhere.

Our lecturer had heard about this Java Jive Competition and urged us to join. Our preparations for the first round of the competition were quite intense. We were working long hours to make sure that the application was working without a hitch. It was such a thrill to be presented with the Technology Award after that 1st round. It boosted our confidence and we went back to carefully consider some of the feedback we had received on how we could enhance our application further.

Before the final round of competition we managed to add an additional feature of live streaming. We also came up with another feature of showing a TV recast - a very popular feature.

Working under such tight deadlines was not easy but it showed us that we could achieve anything if we really tried.

jWatch captures the Participation Age as it uses a wireless peer to peer network as its foundation. With peer to peer networks, the more people that participate, the better the quality of the videos.

We have learnt that Java is a very powerful language which can power the most sophisticated applications. Our knowledge of Java has definitely grown. Not only that, we have also learnt to interact better with representatives from the industry and we are more aware of industry perspectives regarding a project like ours.

There was overwhelming response to jWatch. We were constantly engaged by visitors who wanted to know more about it at Sun Developer Days. They even shared ideas on how to further enhance the concept. We really appreciated the feedback and we are hoping to follow up on some of the suggestions given to enhance jWatch.

View Juxtaposer’s Application Demo Video

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Java Jive Challenge 2006 Winner



The Java Jive Challenge 2006
School: Republic Polytechnic, School of Information and Communications Technology
Team members: Lee Youwei Marcus, Dinendra Atulatheja Bandara Wickramasinghe, Tan Xue Feng, Teo Yi Jin

After winning Java Jive, the Technopreneur Challenge, my friends and I left Singapore for San Francisco to SUN JavaOne Conference on 15th of May 2006.

Our hearts were filled with lots of excitement as we entered Moscone Convention Centre in San Francisco. One of the highlights for day 1 of JavaOne was the keynote opening by Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz. Schwartz spoke about the future of Java. We learnt about how the future versions of Java will run much better and faster.

At the robotics presentation by Perrone Robotics, I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Perrone. Perrone’s demo of their latest “Tommy” project, an unmanned vehicle really caught my attention as I have a personal interest in robotics. The visit was an eye-opening experience and had helped me develop my interest further. I hope to work on a project related to robotics and automation in my final year of studies at Republic Polytechnic.

On day 2 of JavaOne, we saw Java on Blu-ray technology. We found the technology to be really cool! Something which we were hearing for the first time! We also learnt about what Java can do for the next generation of digital media content. The opportunity to see this created an interest in us to explore this as an area of development for our careers in the future.

During the conference, we also had an opportunity to interview one of Sun's top Java evangelists, Sang Shin. He spoke with lots of passion about Java technology and was very optimistic about the future of Java. The thing that left a deep impression in me was what he said about the capabilities of Java not being fully exploited to its fullest potential and the onus is on budding Java developers like us to create the next generation application which will completely change the world of computing! I was really inspired and hope to take his advice to “dream” about the future and think about building applications that will be really revolutionary. From wearable computing to grid networks all over the city, these are technologies of the future that will likely to change the way the world operates.

Looking back, the trip to JavaOne was indeed an exhilarating experience for me as I get to learn from the leaders of IT industry.