Math Goes Green: Custom Software by Nagarro Runs First Paperless Moodys Mega Math Challenge

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) June 2, 2010

News Facts:

SIAM has successfully implemented a custom software product designed by Nagarro to automate the judging process of the 2010 Moodys Mega Math Challenge. This year, more than 500 teams of high school math students are competing for scholarships totaling $ 100,000, with a grand prize of a $ 20,000 scholarship to be shared among members of the winning team.
The submissions which contain up to 20 pages of text, charts, graphs, tables and equations were judged among seven teams of PhD-level professional applied mathematicians. Over a period of 20 days, each submission was evaluated by multiple judges who were able to view submissions online and remotely at their own convenience, thus eliminating printing, mailing and redistribution of printed hard copies.
In order to deal with the increasing number of submissions and judges spanning a greater geographic area, SIAM enlisted Nagarro to design, build and implement custom software to manage the first round of the judging process for the contest. The new system created by Nagarro logs, tracks, calibrates and calculates the scoring of each submission online; provides judging instructions and relevant background for each judge; ensures complete password-protected confidentiality of all entries; captures judges comments clearly and legibly; and enables judges to participate remotely and forward submissions to other judges electronically in order to meet critical deadlines.
Prior to implementing the custom software developed by Nagarro, the judging process for the contest was primarily manual and paper-based. Though the previous system was effective, it had become increasingly time-consuming to administer within the proscribed timeframe as the Moodys Mega Math Challenge grew each year. In addition to making the process more scalable, SIAM also wanted to dramatically reduce the environmental impact of paper and shipping related to the submission and judging processes.
Nagarros solution was developed in Microsoft

Online Broker TradeKing Invites Students to Generate New Thinking at the Intersection of IT and Finance During First-Ever $100K API Campus Challenge

Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) August 03, 2011

Online broker-dealer TradeKing (http://www.tradeking.com) today announced the TradeKing $ 100K API Campus Challenge. This challenge is intended to drive a unique collaboration between academia and an industry leader like TradeKing to foster creativity and drive awareness about innovative entrepreneurial possibilities around Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Born out of a groundbreaking pilot program conducted in Spring 2011 at the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland, the Fall 2011 semester-long TradeKing Challenge will provide undergraduate business/finance and technology students across the U.S. with real-life experience developing investment-focused Apps and User Interfaces using TradeKings API. The Challenge will be open to as many as 20 universities; already, a number of schools from across the U.S., ranging from large public universities to smaller independent colleges, have registered to compete. The deadline for schools to register for the Challenge is August 15.

The TradeKing Challenge uses the innovative concept of classroom crowdsourcing to encourage students to develop new web and mobile applications using the TradeKing API, potentially combining the TradeKing API with other APIs from websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google. Submissions will be judged by a panel including senior TradeKing executives; Professor Paul Tallon, associate professor of information systems and operations management at the Sellinger School; Jason Heltzer, Principal, OCA Ventures; Brian OMalley, Partner, Battery Ventures; and Greg MacSweeney, Editorial Director of Wall Street & Technology magazine.

We want to encourage creative and transformational thinking, and have designed the TradeKing $ 100K API Campus Challenge to foster these core cultural values while benefiting students, faculty and our clients alike, said Don Montanaro, CEO and Chairman of TradeKing. Students will get the opportunity to work alongside seasoned technology professionals to experience a real-world software development lifecycle and test their skills. Faculty can leverage the Challenge to enhance course content by demonstrating the value of stimulating new creative ideas in a fast-changing and highly competitive online financial services environment.

And for our clients, we expect the outcome of the Challenge will be a wide variety of apps and optional customized trading experiences along with TradeKings commitment to provide the industrys best service and support. We believe this is the first-ever use of crowdsourcing in partnership with academic institutions by a brokerage firm in the U.S., and were proud to take a leadership role in bringing the Challenge to life, continued Montanaro.

Feedback from my students who participated in the pilot Challenge at Loyola was overwhelmingly positive, and I thoroughly enjoyed guiding them through the process, said Professor Tallon. Students were challenged to draw upon a diverse body of knowledge spanning both IT and finance in creating a next-generation App. They had to think in new ways and collaborate under a strict deadline, knowing their classmates were equally driven to move their ideas from concept to execution. I encourage all universities to take advantage of this valuable opportunity for leveraging a new model for classroom learning.

Working with TradeKings API is particularly rewarding for out-of-the box thinkers, creative developers and technologists alike for a number of reasons, commented Dan Raju, TradeKings CIO. In addition to the deep functionality of our API, TradeKing is offering a high level of commitment to service, technical resources and simplified developer onboarding. Were particularly focused on creating an outstanding developer experience in accessing and building great systems and Applications on our secure API.

TradeKing will award up to $ 100,000 in total prize money in the Challenge, including prize money for winners from each of the 20 participating schools, divisional winners and a national $ 20,000 winner. The professors and schools where the winning students are enrolled will also receive cash prizes. The TradeKing $ 100K API Campus Challenge will kick off on September 12, 2011. Interested faculty and undergraduates can visit http://apicampuschallenge.com/ to learn more.

About TradeKing

TradeKing (http://www.tradeking.com) is a nationally licensed online stock and options broker offering simple, low cost online trading fees ($ 4.95 per trade plus $ .65 per option contract, $ 8.95 per trade plus $ .15 per options contract for nine or more contracts) with no hidden costs or account minimums.1 A pioneer in integrating new financial social media as part of its innovative online equities, options trading and fixed-income trading platform, TradeKing has received multiple discount broker awards from top industry sources and was rated best in customer service by SmartMoney2 Magazine, ahead of OptionsXpress, Scottrade, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade. (June 2011 SmartMoney Broker Survey.)

Follow TradeKing on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TradeKing,

Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tradeking,

YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/tradeking,

LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/tradeking.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. For more information, please review the Characteristics and Risks of Standard Options brochure before you begin trading options. Options investors may lose the entire amount of their investment in a relatively short period of time.

TradeKing provides self-directed investors with discount brokerage services, and does not make recommendations or offer investment, financial, legal or tax advice. The content of this press release is provided for educational and informational purposes only, does not constitute a recommendation to enter in any of the securities transactions or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented herein, and does not represent the opinions of TradeKing or its employees.

Online trading has inherent risks due to system response and access times that vary due to market conditions, system performance and other factors. An investor should understand these and additional risks before trading.

Multiple leg options strategies involve additional risks and multiple commissions , and may result in complex tax treatments. Please consult a tax professional prior to implementing these strategies.

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SXSW Das IronGeek Reveals First Four Press/Influencer Competitors; Adds Last Challenge with Triviatise

Austin, TX (PRWEB) March 1, 2011

Two weeks from today the rigorous Das IronGeek competition will ensue at SXSW to crown the geekiest journalist, blogger or influencer. To be held Tuesday, March 15, 2011, Das IronGeek puts competitors through a series of five challenges created by participating companies Das Keyboard, MapQuest, Seidio, SoftLayer, and newly announced addition, Triviatise. And today, the first four of six influencer competitors for the Das IronGeek crown were revealed as: Joshua Baer, Amanda Coolong, Harry McCracken and Nan Palmero.

A Competitive Fleet of Influencers:

These four competitors collectively represent old school long time tech industry analysis and young buck social networking influencers; California and Texas; men and women; and entrepreneurs, consultants and journalists.