Four Massachusetts Institute of Technology students were recently awarded Grand Prize in the OnStar Student Developer Challenge, which kicked off on February 24th.
The goal of the competition for OnStar: To find the next big in-vehicle, voice-enabled application that would provide a greater level of connectivity to its subscribers. The company tapped a select number of schools, including Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, University of Texas, and University of Toledo on top of Boston’s MIT.
The winning group of MIT students created a restaurant discovery app through the OnStar platform. Dubbed EatOn, the app was brilliant enough to allow these four sophomores to cash in on $10,000 in “Developer Dream Package” winnings (scroll below for gadget goodness).
The MIT team traveled with six other finalists to the Where 2.0 Conference to present their apps in front of a panel of judges last week, including Robert Scoble (Scobleizer), Daniel Jacobson (Netflix), Matthew Ervin (The Plum Group) and Jeff Liedel (OnStar).
“This challenge was about looking outside the box in order to develop new technologies that will enrich the driving experience for our six million customers,” said Nick Pudar, OnStar vice president of Planning and Business Development. “We were extremely impressed with all of the students’ final app submissions. These students represent the future of digital connectivity and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of these applications incorporated into OnStar’s suite of services in the future.”
The four winning MIT sophomores include Drew Dennison, Isaac Evans, Sara Sprague and Marie Burkland. Their EatOn creation automatically identifies nearby restaurants and allows drivers to listen to their reviews and ratings, make OpenTable reservations, and ultimately receive turn-by-turn directions straight there — all controlled and set in action through the driver’s voice.
“It was a great competition that allowed us to explore the latest in automotive technology,” shared one of the finalists, Drew Dennison. “There were excellent submissions and strong teams. It was fun to work together; everyone brought 110 percent effort and we are honored to be selected.”
The students have their choice of one of these amazing Developer Dream Packages, each valued at $10,000:
- Option 1: 1 MacBook, 1 iPad, 1 Canon 7D, 1 Xbox/Kinect, 1 Shure SE535 headphones, 1Panasonic HDTV
- Option 2: 5 MacBook Pros
Congrats to these four MIT students – we hope to see more apps developed and demo’ed by you right here in Boston!
