MAI programmers suggest introducing memory cards for schoolchildren

In Seoul, Korea, the Imagine Cup 2007 , an international competition for the best program written by students, ended a few days ago . This year, a Thai student team won the app development category and won the top prize of $ 25,000. They developed the LiveBook project, a speech synthesis program that recognizes and read aloud printed and handwritten text for blind users. The team from Russia (pictured) and the team from Ukraine dropped out at the semifinal stage, which is also very honorable. Ukrainian Roman Koshlyak managed to win second place in the category of algorithms. Here is the complete list of winners .

The Russians submitted the Mapedia project, a computer system for compiling and sharing memory cards (mind maps), to the competition. The main idea of ​​Mapedia is the embodiment of a fundamentally new learning process that combines two key ideas: the use of memory cards to represent knowledge and the integration of individual cards into a single information space in the spirit of wiki-technology.

Thus, the learning process is accelerated by an order of magnitude. MAI students are sure that their development can fundamentally change the entire system of school education (which, in fact, is shown in the demo video under the habrakat).

Mapedia is a three-tier architecture. The system includes an application server and client programs that interact through a web service. Application Server is the central part of the system. It focuses all business logic, which is divided into two subsystems:

• Memory card management. Performs all actions for editing memory cards.

• Links. Allows you to associate different memory cards with each other.

All interface methods for calling clients are concentrated in a special interface layer. Using a server allows you to solve another problem - data storage. Centralized storage removes the problem of transferring work files from a desktop computer to a laptop or PDA. The system allows you to work with your memory cards, regardless of computer.

The main condition of the Imagine Cup 2007 competition was the use of the Microsoft platform. Mapedia was developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 in C #. Web Server Enhancements (WSE 2.0) are used for server and client interaction, the user interface is built on WPF, and Microsoft MultiPoint library is used to implement Multi-Touch. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is used as the database server. A

detailed description of the Mapedia project can be found in the prospectus from the Russian Imagine Cup final ( PDF ). The authors of the program: Konstantin Kichinsky, Konstantin Gorsky, Mikhail Gurenkov, Andrei Sverdlov, all are students of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics of the Moscow Aviation Institute, scientific adviser is Valentin Zaitsev.

Mapedia Demo