When Israel Cook entered the first Howard University Windows Media Player Skins Challenge in 2002, he had no idea how it would change his life. The user-interface "skin" he entered, "Past & Beyond," went on to take first place in the competition. At the time, Cook was majoring in computer science at Howard University in Washington D.C., one of the most prominent of America's historically black universities and colleges. His work garnered the attention of some folks in Hollywood, who subsequently hired Cook to create Windows Media Player skins for the movies "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" as well as the popular WB television-network drama "Smallville." Those credentials in turn recommended Cook to his current position as a webmaster at BET.com, an affiliate of Black Entertainment Television, Inc.

"The connections that got me to where I am right now all started from that first skin I did," says Cook. "It's amazing how far that one skin took me. I worked hard on it for two months straight, until 10 o'clock every night, and it was worth it."

Howard University, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and Microsoft partnered this year to launch the fourth annual Windows Media Player Skins Challenge to create original user interfaces for the popular player. This year, the Skins Challenge was for the first time open to registered students attending any university or college with a NSBE chapter.