Team KIT, the pride of Germany, is defending the home turf at the ISC 2012 Student Cluster Competition this week in Hamburg. We spent a few minutes chatting with them as the competition began. They were all smiles, but it was clear that they are serious about winning.

This is the first time KIT, as an institution, has participated in a competition of this type. The school has quite a technology heritage which includes receiving Germany’s first email in 1984  – an ad for male enhancement, I believe. The students are, as you can see in this video, already having a great time at the event.

From the scuttlebutt I’ve heard around the competition floor, KIT is a serious competitor. The team has spent a lot of time working to optimize software packages to maximize scores. We’ll see if it pays off later today as the application runs come to a close.