About the Contest

By developing an application for the Ricoh & Java™ Developer Challenge - Innovating Technology, you and your team partner could win a week's trip to JavaOne 2009 in San Francisco, USA. Even if you aren't the overall winner there are prizes throughout the contest for winners of each stage including a sought-after Sun SPOT (an experimental platform to inspire developers to build the next great toy, sensor, communication device etc.), and a trip to London for the Grand Final contestants.

Being involved in the Innovating Technology Challenge is a fantastic way to gain experience of developing an application in the business world and a great story for your Curriculum Vitae. In fact, previous contestants have found jobs as a direct result of the contest. Read more about these on the Benefits & Prizes and Success Stories pages. In this section you can also find all the information you need to start developing such as rules & regulations and time scales.

Participating Countries

Universities and students from the following countries are eligible to enter the Challenge: France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK. The four best applications from each of these countries will be selected for the National Finals.

Challenge Stages

Stage 1 - Emulator Development: Contestants develop an embedded Java-based application, in teams of one or two, on the emulator of the Ricoh Multifunctional Product (MFP). From 17 October 2008, once registered, you will be able to download the emulator and development tools (SDK/J) from the resources section on this web site.

Deadline for Development: 16 January 2009

Stage 2 - MFP Development for National Finals: A jury will select the four best applications per country to progress to the 'National Finals'. A Ricoh Multifunctional Product (MFP) will be supplied to the Universities of these teams and the applications should be ported and enhanced from the emulator to the actual device. During the 'National Finals', the national winners will be selected. These teams will progress to a 'Grand Final'.

Deadline: National Finals, March 2009 (exact date to be confirmed)

Stage 3 - Grand Final: The 'National Winners' from the participating countries will present their applications to a professional jury and one team will be selected at the event as the 'Overall Winner' and win a trip to the JavaOne 2009 in San Francisco, USA.

Deadline: Grand Final, 2-5 April 2009, London

The finalists, national winners and overall winner/s will be selected by jury panels. Selection will be based on pre-defined judging criteria, for more information on these and detail on the steps involved please view Activities & Steps.