When I was in France a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of having dinner with the students that won the French Imagine Cup -- Guillaume, Aymeric, Francois, and Vincent. They were as funny and lively and energetic as when they were in Brazil. It was a great way to end a wonderful week in Paris.

The four of them are currently working at 3ie, and are about to get certified so that they are able to teach. But even more interestingly, they're in the process of presenting their winning idea to investors in the hopes of starting a business. What I heard was that they've already had investors express interest, and are currently working on a business plan.  Very cool.  Our academic team in Microsoft France are helping the guys with the plan, but the guys definitely have a clear direction.  I wish them the best of luck.

I also met with Richard Clark, who has been a judge on the Imagine Cup for the past 2 years, and is currently helping to implement the Visual Gaming Algorithm invitational. Richard is a great guy; it's always fun to hang out with him. He and Thomas Lucchini (of our French academic team) showed me the progress of the gaming framework. That was probably the highlight of my trip.

Finally, I met Vincent Lascaux for dinner when I was in London. Vincent came in second in the algorithm finals, and currently has an internship in the UK. Even though the restaurant we went to had excellent Indian food, he misses good French food.  We had a good night catching up on things, on what he's going to do after his internship, and we also discussed how he can help with the Imagine Cup this year.

When I was in Munich I was also going to catch up with the German short film team.  I had heard that Thomas was in Munich interning at Arri.  But it was Oktoberfest and the day we connected by phone Thomas already had plans with his Arri team, so we decided to stay in touch and perhaps meet up for dinner on my next trip out to Munich.

I think sometimes I can get bogged down in the details of my job.  The last few months after the Imagine Cup have been particularly intense with a lot of activities and reviews.  But then I get the opportunity to interact with students, like I did in Europe -- and it  re-charged my batteries.