The efforts of the UIC instructor Dr. Louis Tang, Assistant Professor of Division of Science and Technology, and his students’ team CameraTricks in demonstrating their unique creativity won them the third prize in the national final onsite competition of the Google’s 2012 Android Student Developer Challenge, presented in the Google Beijing Office on 16 December 2012.

Two teams of UIC students, CameraTricks and My clothes: Ryan&Thomas, won the second and third prize in the Southern China contest, and later, the former earned the third prize nationally.

              (From left) Dr. Louis Tang, Chen Zhuo, Lv Yunpeng, Ye Shu, and Zhu Aimin, manager of Google China University Relations

“It is the first time that UIC students have participated in the contest. I’m so proud of them,” said Tang, when asked about his feelings on the excellent results his students had achieved. “We didn’t have overall knowledge of the contest in the beginning, and that’s why we didn’t expect that we would stand out.

“It is really challenging. Competitors are from universities that are famous for engineering. Most of them had spent about 3 months specialising in the apps, while we just submitted in-class programmes.”

Chen Zhuo, a member of CameraTricks, admitted that the result had gone beyond his anticipation. “We didn’t have full preparation,” Chen said. “We readjusted what we’ve finished in class and then handed it in.” His team members, Lv Yunpeng and Ye Shu, hailed the teamwork that saw them through, and Shao Yanghuan and Cui Jiangmin, the duo of My clothes: Ryan&Thomas, also revealed their appreciation of the precious experience.