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UMD News Releases

Communication Associate: Public Relations | Lori Melton | lmelton@d.umn.edu | (218) 726-8830
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September 12, 2008
Susan Beasy Latto, Director, UMD Public Relations (218) 726-8830 slatto@d.umn.edu
Jeffrey Sharkey, Jeffrey.Sharkey@gmail.com
Carolyn Crouch, Graduate Studies Director, UMD Department of Computer Engineering (218) 726-7607 ccrouch@d.umn.edu
A quick 3-minute video showing Jeff Sharkey's application: http://scan.jsharkey.org/

UMD Graduate and Esko Native Wins
$275,000 Grand Prize in Google Developer Challenge

University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) alumnus and Esko native, Jeffrey Sharkey's software application has been selected as one of the top 10 applications in Google's prestigious Android Developer Challenge. Sharkey was awarded a $275,000 cash prize for his "CompareEverywhere" bar-code scanning program.

Sharkey is a 2006 graduate of the UMD Swenson College of Science and Engineering.

Android Developer Challenge is a contest designed to get software developers working on programs for Android, Google's soon-to-be released cell phone operating system.

Sharkey was one out of 1,800 developers that sent in applications for the Challenge. In May Google announced Sharkey's program as one of the top 50 products, which netted him $25,000. Sharkey spent the summer refining the program and after the final judging in early August, his software application was announced one of ten grand prizewinners.

Sharkey's "CompareEverywhere" (formerly dubbed "AndroidScan") application is developed to find pricing and metadata for anything with a barcode. The application uses phone cameras to read the barcode of a product, and through the phone's internet connection it allows users to:

  • Get more information about the product
  • Source detailed reviews
  • Search online and offline stores for better prices
  • Get directions to stores
  • Preview cd's
  • Check for books in local libraries.

Jeffrey Sharkey graduated in May with his master's degree in computer science at Montana State University.


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