Interview with team Sytech from the Imagine Cup

Joining us today are Adrian Buzgar, Calin Juravle, and Andreas Resios, who were part of the team Sytech representing Romania in the Imagine Cup 2009. All three team members were from the University of Iaşi and the team took first place in the Software Design category in that year with the project called UpCity. UpCity is an online decision support system that allows citizens to participate in the development of their cities by alerting, proposing and voting on solutions to local issues for governments and NGOs and to act upon. Through these online interactions, UpCity aims to promote competition between local governments in their ability to respond to local issues, thereby improving the quality of life of citizens.

After the competition, UpCity has been deployed at Iaşi City Hall, Romania, and the team has started their own business venture Sytech Software to future develop the project.

Adrian, Calin and Andreas shares with us some of their thoughts on UpCity and their competition experience.

First of all, how did your team come up with the idea of using the power of a social platform to enhance government efficiency?

We started work on UpCity looking for problems around us, things that were going wrong in our city (Iasi – Romania), or things that could be improved in some manner. We came to the conclusion that software in itself, no matter how smart, could never solve anything alone, but that people could use our project to help them better deal with problems. So we decided to get people more involved in community-related issues. Ideas about eDemocracy/eParticipation have been floating around for some time already. We wanted to materialize some of these ideas into a concrete product. We think that the approach and execution are what helped UpCity shine.

What background research have you done for UpCity and what were some interesting facts?

It took us quite some time to define the goals of our project, because most of the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] are very specific (e.g. universal primary education, or improving maternal health). We wanted to encompass as much as possible without losing focus. So we contacted local authorities and they were happy to sign a partnership with our team. That helped us gain some of the knowledge we needed to shape our project and make it better suited for both citizens as well as authorities (both being active players in our platform). We also looked for similar projects (and found some, loosely based on the same idea) to see what could be done better.

Both you Calin and Adrian have prior experience with Imagine Cup when you both got into the top 20s in the Project Hoshimi Programming Battle. Do you think that experience helped your team with the Software Design category?

Absolutely. Imagine Cup is an overall tough competition, so having gone through it before, and especially having tasted defeat a year before in Project Hoshimi helped us a lot. We knew from the beginning the kind of effort that we had to put into the project to make it worthwhile.

Throughout the project, how did your group manage team work?

Most of the work was done camping our homes in rotation. We’d discuss architecture stuff and argue on the best approach for this or that, and then go into development. In early stages we did a lot of pair programming, i.e. someone would write code while the other(s) gave feedback on the fly, and then switch roles. We found that this was a lot more effective than working remotely, with each one doing his separate bit and then working out the details of putting them together.

Later, when most of the things became clear, we split the work into more individual tasks.

Tell us about the experience at the Imagine Cup worldwide finals in Cairo.

It was great, we got to see the Pyramids and some of the best sights in Cairo, but the best part by far was being in that huge crowd of tech students and getting to exchange ideas and learn about the others’ cultures. Having similar academic backgrounds made it really easy to connect and chat, and even for that alone it was an amazing experience.

How do you think UpCity will shape politics?

With UpCity, we’re pushing for participation and transparency. Often times it seems that politicians live in a world of their own, to some extent oblivious to things that really matter to people who elect them. We want to bridge that gap, by bringing information more efficiently to decision-makers, as well as allowing people to assess results and give direct feedback, with all this information accumulating over time in a rating system. This should reward actual results and discredit inaction on the part of authorities, in a way that persists over an entire mandate. With such a system in place, people could ideally base their vote on statistics rather than speeches. But there’s a long way to go before we get there.

What is the progress of deploying UpCity in Iasi City Hall and what’s the response been so far?

We’re close to delivering the pilot of UpCity to the City Hall in Iasi. There have been a lot of changes from the project we showcased in Cairo, and it took some time to mature. They’ve been very supportive, giving us ideas on functionalities that would help them use it effectively.

You’ve set up the company Sytech Software. What is the company’s mission and what are its projects?

Our company is focused entirely on UpCity. Our long-term goal is to use the platform we’ve developed for positive social impact.

How does it feel like to be/become entrepreneurs?

It can be tough at times. Entrepreneurship requires a whole different set of skills than software development. But we’re learning fast and gaining this kind of experience in our early 20s feels great.

Last but not least, what advice would you give to future Imagine Cup participants?

Imagine Cup is not just a competition, it’s an adventure that will shape you in many more ways than just professionally. We encourage students with an IT background to participate and give it their best, it’s an opportunity that they must not pass!

End of Interview

Thanks Adrian, Calin and Andreas for taking the time to talk about UpCity!

Team Sytech has published a website detailing the “behind-the-scenes” of UpCity and their journey to success in the Imagine Cup. You can also watch a video overview of how UpCity works at the Imagine Cup website.