May 29, 2009 - (ATLANTA) - Jimmy Dickinson, a second-year graduate student at Georgia State's J. Mack Robinson College of Business, teamed with his two younger brothers to win the U.S. software design championship at the 2009 Microsoft Imagine Cup competition held in Boston earlier this month. The victory qualifies the brothers, known as Team MultiPoint Web, to represent the United States at the world finals which will be held in Cairo on July 3.
Dickinson, a Master of Science student majoring in computer information systems (CIS), along with his brothers Mark and Luke Dickinson, formed the victorious programming team. Mark and Luke live in Portland, Oregon, where Mark is an undergraduate computer science student at Portland Community College and Luke is a student at Tigard High School. Their team created a set of low- to no-cost Web-based learning applications built on Microsoft's MultiPoint technology, which allows several students to simultaneously use a single computer through multiple mice.
"Our team is excited to represent the United States," said Jimmy Dickinson, who credited his Robinson College education for providing the boost he needed to excel in the national competition. "Robinson's top 10 ranked CIS department has provided me with an excellent education," adding that "the flexibility of the program allowed me to gain a wealth of professional experience while still working toward my degree."
Noting that the Imagine Cup is the most prestigious student programming competition in the nation, David McDonald, associate professor of computer information systems and Robinson's director of emerging technologies, said that "Jimmy and his brothers produced a great idea and created a suite of exciting educational software designs that fit perfectly into the theme and technical challenges of the competition. They deserved their first place finish for their technical artistry and innovative thinking."
Team MultiPoint Web defeated 14 competitors, including teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University and California Polytechnic University. The Dickinson brothers' winning suite of educational software programs can be updated with new lessons and activities that can be shared around the world in multiple languages with little or no hardware or software investment. Further, it has the potential to stretch existing hardware resources several times over, benefiting developing nations where students are many and resources are few.
The largest business school in the South and part of a major research institution, the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University is located in Atlanta, an epicenter of business and a gateway to the world. With programs on four continents and students from 150 countries, the College is both worldwide and world class. Its part-time MBA program is ranked number seven in the nation and has been in the top 10 for 14 consecutive years. The College has 200 faculty, 7,400 students and 65,000 alumni. Noted for an emphasis on educating leaders, the Robinson College and Georgia State University have produced more of Georgia's top executives with graduate degrees than any other school in the nation.
