A University of Birmingham Computer Science student, who has created the concept of a wrist-worn mobile portal giving access to a host of information on the move, has won a prestigious award from Motorola.
Richard Long, in his first year at Birmingham, wrote an essay about a 14 year old boy who used this futuristic gadget, allowing him to interact with almost anything, from vending machines to entertainment screens based in public buildings like cafes, libraries and airports. News, entertainment, location services and even health and welfare monitoring were all easily accessible from the wrist-worn device through its interaction with a series of intelligent networks covering the UK.
Richard’s concept was judged to be the best out of many other ideas presented through Motorola’s national student competition, MOTOFWRD. The competition was created to challenge students to outline their vision of how seamless mobility would shape our world in the future.
Sir David Brown, Chairman of Motorola Ltd, said "We have been astonished and delighted to see the imagination and creativity shown by the student population towards the concept of seamless mobility in this competition. Motorola has been redefining mobility for more than 70 years and ideas like these are an inspiration to us to continue to challenge the boundaries."
Commenting on his winning entry, Richard said, ‘I am very pleased to have won the prize. It’s just a case of utilising what we already have the ability to do and making the most of it.’
Richard’s prize includes a new Bluetooth®-equipped Mini car, £5,000, a suite of Motorola’s most advanced seamless mobility products and a six-week summer internship with the company.
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Notes to Editors
Photocall: There will be an opportunity to photograph Richard with the mini at Chancellor’s Court, University of Birmingham, on Wednesday 12th April at 11am.
For further information
Kate Chapple, Press Officer, University of Birmingham, tel 0121 414 2772 or 07789 921164.