CS "NetGene" Team Place Second In VC Competition

Over a quarter-century ago, Microsoft set a lofty goal of  “putting a PC in every home and on every desktop.” The idea seemed like science fiction at the time. Now, a group of ambitious computer science majors at Boston College have an equally lofty goal: to put the equivalent of a supercomputer in every home and every pocket.

Shahbano Imran ’09, Jason Croft ’09, Dan Blank ’08, and Brad Hayes ’08 participated in the Boston College Venture Competition, organized by the Carroll School of Management on April 7, 2009. Their NetGene team presented its business plan and a working prototype for a “cloud computing” product. Each team was allotted 20 minutes, followed by seven minutes for questions and answers. NetGene competed against 60 other teams, advancing to the semi-finals, and then going on to qualify as one of six finalists. They finished in second place, and were awarded a $3,000 prize.

NetGene successfully demonstrated its prototype during the competition by remotely utilizing the resources of the Computer Science Laboratory’s 25 iMac computers. Shahbano Imran says that she and her fellow team mates developed the idea for the project last summer.

Recent developments in computing technology—including the prevalence of broadband connectivity and powerful, web-based platforms—have allowed grid-based computing projects to become more commonplace.  And although the competition has ended, interest in the NetGene product may be just beginning. According to Imran, the group is in contact with representatives at the Harvard Medical School Genome Project.

NetGene members are cautiously optimistic that their product could be commercialized, “giving universities an affordable method of deploying a cloud computing infrastructure, and supplying computing power that would otherwise not be available or affordable.”