August 22, 2014

IDEA Winners Show a Glimpse Into Future Apps

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Congratulations to the winners of this year’s IDEA contest, a competition that allows students to apply their STEM knowledge and creativity to build an original mobile app that can be used everyday. This initiative was implemented in conjunction with OASIS (an AT&T ERG) and UT Dallas as part of a STEM outreach initiative.

The final round of the IDEA Contest took place last Saturday on August 9th at the UT Dallas Campus. The high school winners were Arjun Menta and Elise Cai of Plano ISD’s Plano East Senior High School. Dubbing themselves as the “Next Thinkers”, their innovative app design allow students to access textbooks and turn in assignments. The middle school first place winners, Nishant Tyagi and Taylor Crockett, hail from Ereckson Middle School in Allen ISD. The duo named themselves as team Jupiter, and their app helps volunteer groups coordinate and strategize events.

OASIS-Texas President, Uttam Dravidam, and his team, along with the Dr. Jey Veeraswamy of UT-Dallas Computer Science Department, worked over 4,000 hours the past four months to make this event a success. Shyam Venkat, AT&T’s VP Digital Experience Technology, was present to be the key-note speaker and to hand the awards for the high school students. Sorabh Saxena, AT&T’s VP IT ACSI, was present to award the middle school students. Also present during the Awards ceremony was Mark Spong, Dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at UT – Dallas.

AT&T is proud to be a part of this powerful learning experience. OASIS will continue to offer stimulating projects to young students to increase their interest in the STEM education field, and build up future STEM leaders.

The Honorable Judges were a combination of leaders from ATT and UT Dallas:

  • Manoj Abraham, Director IT - Digital experience
  • Todd Carlton, Asst. Vice President IT – ACSI
  • Prof. John Cole, University of Texas – Dallas
  • Sridhar Ravilla, Director IT – ACSI
  • Greg Stiegler, Asst. Vice President IT – Operations
  • Ridhima Singla, University of Texas – Dallas
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