VOA慢速英语2012 Technology Report - 'FlashFood' App Wins US Finals in Imagine Cup for Students

 

Technology Report - 'FlashFood' App Wins US Finals in Imagine Cup for Students

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Students from Arizona State University won top honors last week at the Imagine Cup finals in the United States. Microsoft Corporation organizes the yearly competition.

The Imagine Cup asks students to use their imaginations and their love of technology to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. More than one hundred thousand students in the United States alone registered for the event this year. Twenty-two teams were chosen to take part in the finals in Seattle, Washington.

Team FlashFood won first place in the Imagine Cup’s Software Design competition. Eric Lehnhardt is the leader of the team.

Eric Lehnhardt: "The idea is this, that there’s a lot of food that goes to waste from hotels, from catered¹ events and from restaurants. And this food is, it’s perishable² food, so it’s the kind of food that can’t normally be handled by food recovery organizations like food banks or food pantries.”

Eric Lehnhardt says food insecurity affects a lot of people, especially in large population centers.

Eric Lehnhardt: “They don’t necessarily know where their next meal is coming from, or that they have to make decisions between paying their bills and whether or not they’re going to eat for a day.”

The FlashFood team has developed a way to get leftover³ and unwanted food into the hands of people who need it.

Eric Lehnhardt: “It’s a mobile application and website that makes it possible for restaurant managers to enter information about food that they would like to donate into our network - sending a notification then to a team of volunteer drivers who can go pick up the leftover food and take it into a community where those who are living in food insecurity can receive that donation.”

Richard Filley is director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program at Arizona State. The FlashFood team is one of the program’s thirty-seven projects. Mr. Filley says winning the Imagine Cup’s Software design category is a major honor. But, he says, it is not what energizes⁵ his students.

RICHARD FILLEY: “We have students that want to change the world and make a difference and we’re very serious about that.”

Microsoft is celebrating the tenth year of the Imagine Cup. Mark Hindsbo is a vice⁴ president with the company. He says the competition has changed a lot since it first began.

MARK HINDSBO: “It was very computer science focused. Almost all of the students had a computer science background. And the projects themselves were very computer science focused.”

Mr. Hindsbo says the students who compete now have different areas of expertise⁶. For example, Team FlashFood had a student who studied biomedical engineering. Another student studied marketing⁷ and sustainability. Yet another studied material science and engineering.

MARK HINDSBO: “The projects are much better, much stronger much more exciting as a result because they play off each other’s skills.”

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts⁸, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at www.voanews.cn. Join us again next week for more on the Imagine Cup competition and this year’s winning teams. I'm Steve Ember.

1 catered   

提供饮食及服务( cater的过去式和过去分词 )； 满足需要，适合

参考例句：

• We catered for forty but only twenty came. 我们准备了40客饭菜，但只来了20个人。
• They catered for everyone regardless of social rank. 他们为所有人服务而不计较其社会地位。

2 perishable   

adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的

参考例句：

• Many fresh foods are highly perishable.许多新鲜食物都极易腐败。
• Fruits are perishable in transit.水果在运送时容易腐烂。

3 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 energizes   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的第三人称单数 )；使通电

参考例句：

• However, heating energizes the vibrational, rotational, and electronic motions all at once. 但是，加热会一下子把振动、转动和电子运动统统加强。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Purpose always produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose. 目的往往会带来热忱，没有任何东西比清晰的目的更有动力。 来自互联网

6 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句