On Campus
2006 Windows Media Player Skins Challenge
By J. Min
May 11, 2006, 11:18

On May 5, the finalists of the 2006 Windows Media Player Skins Challenge showcased their eclectic mix of custom interfaces (“skins”) at Howard University’s Blackburn Center. A member of the “Drum Line” team, Howard Baker, pegged the atmosphere of the event with the comment, “Technology is about getting things done, but it’s also about fun.”

The technology contest was complemented with hip-hop beats that reverberated throughout the auditorium, as well as an entertaining group of Howard University student emcees called the Skin Tight Group.

While flashy graphic designs and creative video game concepts kept the energy level high, the real excitement stemmed from the passion the contestants showed when presenting their work. Their message to future computer science majors: It’s hard work, but it pays off.

The Windows Media Player Skins Challenge began five years ago to engage minorities and women in creative software development. The challenge is to create a unique “skin” that weaves usability and Black history and culture together. Microsoft leverages this challenge to attract the best and brightest HBCU students; in fact, this year’s winners¯Munyiri Kamau, Paul Onakoya, and Chi Owunwanne¯are set to work for Microsoft after graduating from Howard University.

The winning skin, titled “Ngao,” which means “shield,”  is a tribute to tribal warriors of the past and present. Shaped like a shield, the skin allows users to find lyrics for songs in their playlists by utilizing MSN search capabilities. Small details such as the rustic color of the shield and whirring neon yellow rings that spin faster when one presses that respective button made this skin aesthetically exciting. In addition, the skin also functions as a karaoke machine.

The other six skins were just as ambitious.

Take for instance “Soca Warriors”: Lead programmer, Marlon Mejias, paid homage to his Trinidadian background by including elements of Soca"¯music played widely in the Caribbean¯and soccer. The skin opens by showing an intense soccer match between two teams. Using “matrix-inspired” slow motions and anime, the intro ends when a player kicks the ball into the screen, turning it into a fully functional Microsoft Windows Media Player. The combination of bold colors and animation was enough for Mejias and fellow George Washington University teammates, Dane Ragobar and Kristen Wigglesworth, to win second place.

Coming in third place was the skin “Drum Line.” This skin elicited the "oohs and ahhs" of the audience, as it features a drum major with interchangeable modalities. With a few clicks of the mouse, the drum major will show up in various HBCU outfits and play the respective school theme. One click will have the skin playing Howard University’s Showtime marching band, but further clicks feature North Carolina’s A&T's Blue and Gold "Marching Machine” and Florida A&M’s “Marching 100” band. It was an exchange of energy as the Drum Line team members¯Brandon Coates, Tyrone Jack, and Howard Baker¯pointed out the various functions of the skin after gaining such an animated reaction by audience members.

As a member of the Skin Tight Crew and the Drum Line team, Tyrone Jack received many accolades during the ceremony for his Web site, www.tyronejack.com. It came as no surprise, as Jack's portfolio is packed with accomplishments from his internships at BET.com and General Motors.

At General Motors, Jack designed concept car ideas for 2012. When an audience member asked how long it takes him to complete such projects, Jack laughed and said, “It’s hard to say. It’s one of those things where I just sit down and get lost in the project and don’t get up until I finish.”

The majority of participants were male, but Spelmanites, Sara Hazle, Nicole Epps, and Kayra Hopkins were outstanding representatives for members with the X chromosome.

Although their skin, Rushmore¯featuring the faces of Black entertainers Aaliyah, Tupac Shakur, Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes, and Biggie Smalls¯did not place, their message to future female video game designers was positive. Sara Hazle said “I think it’s important that we show that you can have fun with a game without showing extreme violence or sexuality as some of the games have. A lot of such games have led to a lot of violent times taking place, but the games we’ve created are all a lot of fun without those elements.”

Nicole Epps demonstrated her game, “Bubble Gunz,” which features a young African-American girl protecting her neighborhood from monsters. The object of the game is to blow bubbles around oncoming monsters, which causes them to rise up into the air, where players will aim a small gun to pop the bubble and the monster inside. The bright colorful houses, comically shaped monsters, and varying speeds and difficulties, from “I Ain’t No Punk” to “A Walk in the Park,” make this game safe and entertaining for all ages.

Other designs included the following: “Pop Culture,” by KaNisa Williams of Georgia Tech University; “Tech World,” by Waynette Harper, Headley Murray, and Kiran Rajendran of Howard University; and “Awareness,” by Keith Hammond of Melrose High School and Brian Clark and Darrell Sneed of the University of Memphis.

Dr. Todd Shurn, executive producer and associate professor of Systems and Computer Science at Howard University, said to future science and technology majors, “We started this program to move more young people into tech … There are lots of problems out there … gas prices, global warming … while you didn’t make these problems, you’ll have to solve them. We want to train students to learn how to problem solve, be creative … We don’t want you to walk to calculus, we want you to run there!”

As for the future of the Windows Media Player Skins Challenge, Dr. Michael Smith, top director of the National Society of Black Engineers World Headquarters Programs Team, and Keith Toussaint, Senior Program Manager in the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft, showed enthusiasm and determination to keep the program growing. Toussaint commented, “The bar gets raised every year, and that’s what we’d like to see in programs like this …” Dr. Smith said that he hopes to expand this program across to country and get up to 30 participating teams next year.

To view the Howard University online skins gallery, visit www.howard.edu/skins/challenge.