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Taking on the drought, and winning

16 July 2008

Long Zheng with winning team mates
Long Zheng (second from left) with his winning team mates. Photo courtesy of Microsoft.com.

Monash multimedia student Long Zheng and his colleagues David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, and Ed Hooper from team SOAK have taken out the top prize in the 2008 Microsoft Imagine Cup finals, announced in Paris this week.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup asked students to picture a world where technology enables a sustainable future. Regarded by many as the IT equivalent of the Olympics, students were given a chance to showcase their talent and kick-start their careers in the industry.

The four students overcame 200,000 other students from more than 100 countries for the honour, with a system that's taking on the drought.

Mr Zheng's team was driven by the impact climate change has had on the farming industry and community.

The result was SOAK (Smart Operational Agricultural Kit), a combination of hardware and software designed to assist drought-stricken farmers manage their water resources effectively. SOAK uses a network of solar-powered sensors to control water usage on a farm by measuring aspects such as soil moisture levels and temperature.

As business strategist and interface designer for the team Mr Zheng made regular visits to Victorian farms to ensure the team produced an entry that would benefit the end user.

"We went out and met with farmers and put in the time to make sure we were designing something that would actually make a difference," Mr Zheng said.

This is the first time the team entered the Imagine Cup.

Knocking off some of the top university teams, traditionally mentored by senior academics, the SOAK team went it alone, worked largely online, and stunned the judges with their product's sophistication, affordability and commercial development readiness.

"It's not just conceptual, it's functional," Mr Zheng said.

Team SOAK, which took home $15,000 for their efforts, are in discussions with Hewlett-Packard which is interested in developing the system.