Success Stories
Here you can find background information about the previous editions of the Challenge, including students who have found a job or a work placement through the contest and a 'Hall of Fame' with previous winners and their reactions.
Angela Borile - University of Padova, Italy:
"Students often think that the academic and business worlds are completely separated, but I'm a real example that this is not true. I participated in the Ricoh & Java™ Developer Challenge in 2006 and reached the Italian Final. But I'm a winner all the same, as I was recruited by a great company, Ricoh Italy based on my achievements during the contest. Now I'm working in Milan and at the same time I am continuing my studies at the University of Padova. My main reason to join the contest was to improve my personal knowledge, especially in Java™ programming and embedded devices, but the contest has opened to me a wide and unexpected horizon. Thanks to the contest, I now work in a challenging environment, where I can gain further experience in solutions development."
Steve Winslade - Kingston University, UK:
"To put it simply, I would not have the job I have now, if it wasn't for the Ricoh & Java™ Developer Challenge. Together with my colleague, Dan Collins, we entered the contest and were fortunate enough to reach the Grand Final. Although we didn't win the final, we still had an amazing time in Amsterdam and were very happy with the prizes we won! As a direct result of the competition, I was offered a position with a local software company, Business I.T. Systems Ltd, based in Chessington, England. I'm now working as a software engineer, developing real-world applications on exactly the same platform I was using for the contest. Before the competition, I had never even heard of Ricoh, but thanks to the contest, my knowledge of Java™ has increased dramatically and my career has a firm foundation now."
'Hall of Fame'
| Challenge | Students | Professor | University | Application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006/07 | Cyril Joui & Zoul Akhbar | Prof. Olivier Corgeron | SUPINFO Technology Institute | Get & Print |
| 2005/06 | Virgilio Pigliucci & Andrea Vattani | Prof. Luigi Mancini | Università di Roma "La Sapienza" | 'Afficionados' RSS News Feed |
| 2004/05 | Grzegorz Lehmann & Thomas Strecker | Prof. Sahin Albayrak | DAI Labor Technical University of Berlin | UPnP AV Media Server Browser |
2006/2007 Grand Winners - SUPINFO International Institute of Information Technology
Cyril Joui & Zoul Akhbar (winning students):
"The Ricoh Contest was a real challenge for us. From the start, our main objective was to create a real and useful business solution, as professional as possible. We had never created such a complete project as 'Get & Print', from a technical, marketing, presentation, documentation point of view. It has been a very great experience that we will never forget! This contest has offered us so many opportunities, from meeting many important persons from Ricoh, Sun and other companies, trips to the European Final in Prague and the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco and of course getting to know the other students from all over Europe. To conclude, we can only recommend all students to participate and have fun like us in the Ricoh Contest in 2008, 2009, 2010 and onwards! I want to thank Ricoh and Sun for this contest and all support staff for their help!"
Prof. Olivier Corgeron (supervising professor):
“For any student, business projects like these provide a great opportunity to gain invaluable experience in terms of technical execution and perfection, but also in terms of product marketing, presentation skills and documentation, which are not always integrated in computer development studies. The ‘Ricoh & Java™ Developer Challenge – Innovating Technology’ contest is exactly the type of initiative that is needed by the students.”