Hardware Geeks

Back when I visited with HP in Germany this past June, I was told about a interesting new project they were working on with MTV called Engine Room, then at a dinner with a friend from Microsoft in late July I was filled in a bit more about the project and since it was being filmed in my town “Brooklyn NY” I was even more excited, and it kind of sucked I could not share what I knew about it until now.

Today MTV and HP announced Engine Room. The Engine Room is basically contest between 16 of what they consider the world’s greatest young minds split divided up into 4 teams. The 16 will unleash their skills upon us all, while using HP products to complete challenges. The winning team will take home $400,000 in prizes, and the ability to control the MTV big screen in Times Square for one night.

The Engine Room was filmed in a loft in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn NY, and will be shown on mtvU starting September 15th 2008.

“‘Engine Room’ was born to foster creativity and enable some of the most inventive young minds to amplify how technology brings digital art to life,” said David Roman, vice president, Marketing Communications, Personal Systems Group, HP. “MTV is the ideal partner to share this ‘battle for glory’ with viewers around the world.”

Contestants by region include:
Asia-Pacific
 Santosh Gunaseelan, India
 Jaehyuck Lee, South Korea
 Muja Liao, China
 Jonathan Yuen, Australia

Europe
 Slimane Aniss, France
 Charlotte Cornaton, France
 Manon Magnet, Germany
 Matthew Snyman, United Kingdom

Latin America
 Fred Lammie, Panama
 Enrico Martin, Ecuador
 Rey Ortiz, Puerto Rico
 Luis Salcedo, Brazil

North America
 Dillion McCarthy, Mass., USA
 Christopher Miles, Pa., USA
 Allison Torneros, Calif., USA
 Max Winston, Calif., USA

Each challenge will be judged by an eclectic panel of iconic artists, musicians, filmmakers, celebrities and innovators. The judging panels include:
 Aesop Rock, hip-hop artist signed to Definitive Jux Records
 Katherine Brinson, assistant curator, Guggenheim Museum
 Pete Conolly, art director, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
 Jeffrey Deitch, art critic, exhibition organizer and founder, Deitch Projects
 Tom Delonge, guitarist and lead vocalist, Angels and Airwaves
 El-P, hip-hop artist, producer and entrepreneur, and president, Definitive Jux Records
 Michio Kaku, world-renowned theoretical physicist, best-selling author
 Kenna, Ethiopian-born electronica and synth-pop vocalist and musician
 Lovefoxxx, lead singer of Brazilian indie-electro band Cansei de Ser Sexy (aka CSS)
 Travis McCoy, lead vocalist for the Gym Class Heroes
 Mark Osborne, director, “Kung Fu Panda”
 Benjamin Palmer, chief executive officer, The Barbarian Group
 Oliver Peck, tattoo artist
 Stefan Sagmeister, graphic designer and five-time Grammy nominee
 Nancy Spector, chief curator, Guggenheim Museum
 We Are Scientists, Brooklyn-based indie rock duo
 Mocean Worker, platinum recording artist and music producer

Post Tags: hp  mtv  engine room  mtvu 

Next entry: Win Norton Internet Security 2009 Previous entry: Microsoft and Seinfeld