Winners Announced in Skolkovo Innovation Award: Powered by Cisco I-Prize

Results of Contest Made Public During Final Ceremony

MOSCOW – June 9, 2011 – Cisco unveiled the results of the Skolkovo Innovation Award: Powered by Cisco I-Prize, which was launched Nov. 22, 2010. In a three-stage event, six finalists presented their projects at Moscow City International Business Center and answered questions from the judging panel.

The first prize, totaling 3 million rubles (approx. US$108,000), was awarded to a Moscow team led by Evgeni Smetanin. Their project, “Strategy on Carpet,” transforms computer game fantasies into reality in the form of toy robots. The winners are using the prize money to build a prototype to show potential investors at the Chicago Toy Fair.

The second prize of 1.5 million rubles (US$54,000) was awarded to another Moscow team, which presented a project titled “OKO Contactless Device Control System.” “The mouse is the most commonly used computer interface device, but thanks to our system, users can operate their computers using their eyesight only,” explained the team.

A Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute graduate student, Marta Egorova, became the third-place winner and received 750,000 rubles ($27,000) for her project, “Smart Conversion of Photo Collection into Photo Gallery.” Egorova’s idea can be appreciated by any amateur photographer, as she developed a smart system for sorting photos and building photo books or galleries. This idea was appreciated not only by the judging panel but also by more than 200 guests at the ceremony.

Key Facts / Highlights:

• The Skolkovo Innovation Award: Powered by Cisco I-Prize was created by Cisco as part of the commitment that Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers made to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at their meeting in June 2010. In the meeting, Cisco announced the launch of a long-term program to support sustainable development of the Russian technology innovation agenda. In particular, Cisco offered to hold a creative competition for Russian entrepreneurs based on the international open innovation platform, the Cisco I-Prize contest.

• The Skolkovo Innovation Award: Powered by Cisco I-Prize received an overwhelming response. In just three months, 2,318 ideas were submitted from more than 10,000 people from hundreds of locations across Russia.

• The judging panel included Paul Betsis, general director, Cisco Russia; Alexander Turkot, executive director, IT Cluster at Skolkovo Innovation Center; Alexander Povalko, deputy head, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs; Alexander Galitsky, founder and managing partner, Almaz Capital Partners; Valery Stolyar, executive secretary, Russian Telemedicine Association; Alexander Lyskovsky, CEO, Alawar Entertainment; Oleg Movsesian, CEO, MSU Science Park; and Dmitry Grishankov, CEO, Expert RA Rating Agency.

Tags, Keywords: Russia, Cisco, Cisco I-Prize, Skolkovo

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Supporting resources:

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