Romtelecom for Romanians Foundation offered 10 000 Euros prizes for the coolest ideas
Today, September 28, 2010, the best three projects submitted to “Cool Ideas” competition were rewarded with prizes totaling 10 000 Euros. First prize was awarded to a young person of 23 years old, for the solution “Genetic algorithms applied in planning and projecting the telecom networks”.
„Cool ideas”, the contest launched by Romtelecom for Romanians Foundation aimed to encourage performance and to repay the passion of young people (of up to 30 years old) passionate about IT&C field, stimulating the interest for the study, research and innovation in this domain. 44 projects were submitted in the contest. The best 15 projects which qualified in the final stage of the contest were presented in front of a mixed jury comprising Romtelecom professionals and university professors.
Following the deliberation, Horia Coman, recently graduated from the Polytechnic University, obtained the highest points for a solution regarding applied in planning and projecting the telecom networks. He received the 5,000 Euros award. The second place was obtained by Marius Bucur, third year student at the Automatics and Computers Faculty from Bucharest, with a SIP VoIP application for which he received 3,000 Euros, while the third place, rewarded with 2,000 Euros, was obtained by Iulian Nita, for a monitoring and command system through internet for home.
A special award for the most original solution was offered to Chris Bocz Hunor, 13 years old, also the youngest competitor, who reached into the final with Tech Home project (a solution for intelligent homes). The finalists, whose average age didn’t surpass 27 years old, come both from cities known as traditional education centers in preparing IT&C specialists - Bucharest, Timisoara, and cities such as Baraolt, Bacău, Craiova, Drobeta Turnu Severin, Galaţi, Ploieşti.
„The results of today’s competition prove once again that passion and authentic talent have no age limits and that we have among us remarkable young persons who need support to stand out. We consider that the best of the best won today and we would have liked to have a bigger number of participants able to answer our challenge, even if the proposed topics were very difficult. We are aware that the high level of our requests intimidated a lot of persons, but this made us realize we need to get even more involved in supporting the talents in technology area”Yorgos Ioannidis, CEO Romtelecom, passed the message to the participants.
The most popular of the themes, developed in most of the finalist projects, was „Innovative solutions for intelligent homes”.
Between April 15 and August 31, the pupils and students passionate about IT&C had the occasion to submit their projects on the website dedicated to the contest, www.ideitari.ro. All the validated projects were evaluated by a mixed jury comprising Romtelecom professionals and university professors from Bucharest, Cluj, Iaşi and Timişoara. The authors of the most appreciated 15 projects were invited to present them in front of the same jury. The projects were marked, mainly, depending on the innovation level, the applicability of the ideas and the capacity to offer solutions.
The today’s awarding festivity was preceded by a session of business presentations held by Ovidiu Ghiman, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Vasile Voicu, Product Management Director, business segment within Romtelecom, and a visit to the company’s Network Operations Center. During the discussions session, the participants appreciated that the students from the technical universities in Romania would have even more to gain if in the curricula would be added also personal development programs.
“Romtelecom for Romanians” Foundation, established in 2008, intends the initiation of projects through which to support social causes which need a powerful voice to be spoken, heard and solved. Also, through this foundation, Romtelecom wants to transmit its wish of social involvement to a public as big as possible, which is addressed first of all as a partner. The foundation represents the natural expansion of Romtelecom’s involvement in the well being of the Romanian society, which became visible in the last years through numerous projects supported by the company.