In last year’s edition of the contest, 154 students from 31 universities across Europe were able to try the practically unlimited possibilities for creating customised Java™ technology based applications on Ricoh devices. The students developed many original applications, including RSS feeds, special Barcodes to control output, and Sudoku games.

This year, students will be developing applications through the new version of Ricoh’s SDK/J, the company’s Java™ technology based Software Development Kit. SDK/J version 2 takes development possibilities even further by giving access to more functionality within the Ricoh devices. The colour displays of the latest generation of Ricoh MFPs will no doubt inspire new applications.

The European Final will take place on the 19th and 20th of April 2007 at the Sun Microsystems Development Centre in Prague, Czech Republic. All the national winners will be invited, as well as the best developer(s) in the ‘wild card’ category, a newly introduced category for entries from any of the other European countries.

Registration for the contest has opened on the 1st of October and will close on the 15th of December 2006. Universities and students are invited to register now via the web site http://edu.ricoh-developer.com.

Throughout the contest, students can win a multitude of prizes, including Ricoh GelSprinter™ colour printers, Ricoh digital cameras, vouchers for Sun exams, iPod® Videos and an exciting trip to the European final in Prague. Furthermore, the European winning team will be awarded with the trip to the 2007 JavaOne(SM) Conference in San Francisco, USA. 

"The Java™ ecosystem continues to grow and the use of Java™ technology continues to expand," said Ingrid van den Hoogen, Senior Vice President of Brand, Communications & Integrated Marketing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "We are excited to continue to see Ricoh reach out to the 4.5 million Java™ developers and encourage them to programme in new and innovative ways to Ricoh's platform using Java™ technology."

Sonny Mori, Senior General Manager of Ricoh’s European Marketing Group, added: “It is with great joy that we see this contest expanding from year to year both geographically as in number of participants. This will give more students the opportunity to gain valuable practical work experience, learn more about embedded solutions development, and establish contacts with two leading international IT corporations.”