Imagine Cup Blog

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countries all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Croatia

The Croatian local finals took place on 2 May at the University of Zagreb. For the second year in a row, the event was sponsored by the President of Croatia, Prof. Ivo Josipović. This year, 400 students registered to compete in the local Software Design competition for a total of 8 teams hoping to win a trip to the Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia. After various local rounds, the top 2 teams advanced to compete in the local finals and Team Spectrum was awarded the top prize!

University of Zagreb students, Karlo Klečina, Renato Jović, Predrag Pejić and Iva Šušak will represent Croatia with their solution “IndoorVision” aimed at helping over 280 million visually impaired people struggling with indoor living. Current GPS-based devices are not compatible inside buildings so Team Spectrum has developed a solution that uses the various motion sensors present in a Windows Phone to detect wall markers like furniture in order to help guide blind people through a room via audible instructions.

Congratulations and see you down under in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 – East & Southern Africa

On 3 May the local Software Design finals for East and Southern Africa were held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The finalist teams showcased their solutions to the audience and judges before Louis Otieno, General Manager of Microsoft East and Southern Africa addressed the audience which included 100 lucky high school students who were invited to the event to witness the presentations and be inspired by what young minds can do with the power of technology.

The local competition saw over 180 students register to compete for the top prize: 22 teams submitted an entry and the top 13 teams were chosen to compete at the local finals. After an intense day of judging, Team Cipher256 from Makerere University will represent East Africa at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney!

Team Cipher256 developed a Windows Phone application code-named WIN-SENGA (Senga in the Buganda dialect means “Aunty”) that connects to a device that can aid midwives in performing diagnosis to expectant mothers. The algorithm they used does a conversion of frequency (Hertz) to beats-per-minute of the fetus, its respective position in the uterus and the approximate age of the respective fetus and records all these readings to Windows Azure.

This application has great use case connections in Sub-Saharan Africa and the whole region is hopeful they will do Africa proud at the Worldwide Finals this summer. Congratulations!

Imagine Cup 2012 – New Zealand

Now in its sixth year, the local Software Design competition in New Zealand has become extremely popular amongst local students. This year the local competition saw over 1,500 students engaged for a total of 400 entries submitted! 16 teams battled it out in front of 28 judges over the course of a 2-day local event held on 29 and 30 April. There were over 1,000 attendees present for the teams’ showcase at the renowned Auckland Town Hall.

Team MobileEye, composed of students from the University of Auckland and the Auckland University of Technology, emerged as the winners with a solution that focuses on helping the blind with an added richness of information using Windows Phone devices. It is the team’s intention that this technology will assist individuals in the areas of navigation, shopping and even simple day-to-day activities that can benefit from a greater awareness of the surroundings.

You can find out more about Team MobilEye on their website. Congratulations and see you in Sydney!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Oman

On 2 May, Microsoft Oman held the local Software Design finals in Golden Tulip Seeb, Muscat to select the team that will represent Oman at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney. This year, over 1,000 students participated in local Imagine Cup activities organized across 7 universities with 11 teams submitting entries ranging from healthcare to charity work to environmental sustainability to education. After the preliminary round, the top 5 teams had the chance to present their solutions to the 140 event attendees and judges, who were tasked with the difficult decision of selecting Oman’s winning team.

The winner, Team Grawesome developed “Blood it”, a system that monitors the blood units in the blood bank. The system monitors the quantity available in case of an emergency situation and avoids reaching critical levels by allocating the nearest donors that match the blood group with fewer units left in the blood bank so they can donate. This solution will also allow communication between various blood banks in order to face any emergency supply.

“Looking through the entries of this year’s competition I cannot help but be amazed at the level of sophistication and creativity we have seen in Oman,” said Tareq Hijazi, Country Manager, Microsoft Oman.

Congratulations to Team Grawesome and good luck in Sydney!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Portugal

The Portuguese local Imagine Cup finals took place on 27 April at the newly inaugurated Microsoft Headquarters in the beautiful setting of Parque das Nações in Lisbon. Over 300 students registered to compete in the local Software Design competition from 22 of the top universities in the nation. After the local rounds, the top 10 teams presented their solutions at the local finals.

Some of the projects presented during this year’s local Software Design competition included Kinect for Windows-based applications aimed at helping people with reduced or no mobility manage difficult tasks, a Windows Phone solution to help detect skin cancer, or fighting forest fires through aerial surveillance via an unmanned aircraft with back-end applications developed on Windows Azure.

The winners were selected by a panel of judges made up of University professors, well-known members of the entrepreneurship community in Portugal, industry experts, a TV journalist and representatives from Microsoft Portugal.

After an intense competition, Team wi-GO composed of team members Ana Figueira, Luís de Matos, Michael Adaixo and Pedro Querido from the Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI) were awared top place with their robotic cart designed with the aim of promoting the mobility of people with special needs in different day-to-day situations, particularly in those that require the transportation of objects, giving them maximum autonomy. It is enabled with motors and sensors (Kinect for Windows), programmed to follow the person with reduced mobility wherever he/she goes, thus allowing the transportation of objects and making their lives easier, bringing more comfort and safety to those who already face many obstacles every day.

Congratulations and good luck!

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countries all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Australia

The Australian local finals took place on 2 May in Melbourne hosted by Aaron Wood, former winner of the Australian Prime Minister’s ‘Environmentalist of the Year’ Award. This year over 500 students representing more than 75% of Australian Universities registered to compete in the local Software Design Competition. The top 5 teams were selected from 50 entries through various preliminary rounds and met face to face in Melbourne to compete for a chance to represent Australia as the home team at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney.

After presenting their solution to a panel of judges, Team StethoCloud was awarded the first place prize by Microsoft Australia Managing Director Pip Marlow! Team members Hon Weng Chong, Andrew Lin, Kim Ramchen and Masha Salehi, from the Victorian University, developed an innovative solution to detect pneumonia early. By connecting a stethoscope to a Windows Phone, a community health worker or unskilled administrator is able to transit diagnostic information into a cloud service  that analyses a patient’s breathing sounds for patterns that represent the earliest stages of pneumonia.

StethoCloud reproduces the diagnostic capability of a trained medical doctor and is able to detect, alert, and advise those with little or no awareness of pneumatic or respiratory illness as to the seriousness of a child’s condition and force intervention much earlier, and in effect, save millions of lives a year.

Here’s what one of the judges, Maurice Pagnucco, Head of Computer Science at the University of NSW, had to say after the event:

“Technology is not only making a difference to the way we work, the way we learn, the way we consume products and the way we obtain entertainment, it has also begun to make a difference to the way in which we socialize and interact with the world around us. It is clear that this will increasingly continue to be the case. Imagine Cup is an excellent way for students to learn about new technologies and apply them to making the world a different place and one in which peoples' lives are enhanced.”

Congratulations to team StethoCloud!

Imagine Cup 2012 – India

On 25 April in New Delhi, 500 students gathered at the LaLiT Hotel, venue of the Indian Imagine Cup local finals excited to find out who will represent India at the Worldwide Finals. This year, the local Software Design competition saw over 50,000 students registered to compete and over 355 entries submitted. The top 7 Software Design teams presented their solution to the attendees, including Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Corporation and former Imagine Cup 2008 Interoperability Award Winners Noel, Sameet and Amith - founders of Creative Riot Software.

The top prize was awarded to team The D Labs from the Birla Institute of Technology. Team members Devesh Kumar, Amit Kumar Sharma, Deepali Sinha and Abhishek Kumar developed a solution that enables dyslexic children to learn and engage in a fun, easy to use and interactive manner. Tested across several schools, the solution uses Kinect, Windows Azure and Silverlight.

Ms. Seema Gumber, Head of Training & Placements, Anangpuria Institute of Technology, Faridabad, commented:

“It was our honor to hear industry leaders like Kevin Turner. It's really inspiring as all upcoming engineers need such an opportunity where they can showcase their potential and can become future software developers or entrepreneurs. Our students were so impressed and inspired after attending the session that they have started working for Imagine Cup 2013 and we have planned to take the initiative to promote all Microsoft events in all the colleges of our city.”

Good luck to team The D Labs and see you in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Ireland

On 25 April, Ireland held its local Software Design finals, and having the honor of current world champions in Software Design with Imagine Cup 2011 Winners Team Hermes, stakes were high to win the possibility of representing Ireland at this year’s Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia. The two-day event was held in the European Development center in Dublin. Day One saw the 13 finalist teams hold private judging sessions, and on Day Two the students showcased their ideas to the attendees, followed by live presentations by the top 4 teams.

After an intense day of judging, Team DocTek Systems from NUI Maynooth University was declared the Irish Software Design winner! Their winning solution is a cloud- based  healthcare management system designed for patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a long-term illness. The application allows them to manage their medication and symptoms using their phone or web service, along with a tailored back-end for the doctor to build a connected healthcare experience.

Check out this video and relive the most exciting moments at the Irish Imagine Cup Finals! Congratulations to team DocTek Systems!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Jordan

On 1 May, in the AlHussein Cultural Center in Amman, Microsoft Jordan held its Software Design Imagine Cup Finals with over 300 people in attendance, including Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. After various qualification rounds, 7 teams were selected to present their projects to a panel of judges. Last year, the Software Design team from Jordan won 3rd place in Software Design at the Worldwide Finals in New York City, and this year students are even more optimistic. The energy of the young students was just amazing, and Her Majesty tweeted:

“Pleasant reminder that the wealth of this nation lies in its young bright minds! Very creative entrepreneurs in the making.”

Team Dancing Pillow won first place and will represent Jordan at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals! Jordan University of Science and Technology students Anwar Almojarkesh, Abdullah Lababidi and Abdallah Shakhatreh developed an electronic pillow that uses light, vibration, sound or smell to wake up  people who are partially or fully deaf, as well as heavy sleepers or those with insomnia.

Congratulations and see you in Sydney!

Imagine Cup 2012 – Nigeria

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design final for Nigeria was held on 27 April in Port-Harcourt, situated in the South-South region of Nigeria. Over 120 people attended the event as 13 teams from various Nigerian Universities competed for the ticket to Sydney. This year, more than 600 students participated in the local Software Design competition for a total of 35 projects submitted, ranging from Healthcare to Education and Environmental Impact/Green Computing Initiatives.

Team Gravity from Obafemi Awolowo University won first place, a trip to represent Nigeria at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals as well as a Nokia Lumia 900 courtesy of Nokia West Africa. Team members Oludayo Alli, a Psychology senior, and Timileyin Okoya, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering senior, developed ‘SwiftER’, an emergency response solution, which will definitely save lives and ensure that emergency help reaches those in dire need as soon as possible.

Congratulations to Oludayo and Timileyin – See you in Australia!

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countries all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 – United Arab Emirates

On 23 April, the Imagine Cup 2012 UAE Local Finals were held in Dubai.  This year, over 2,000 students registered to compete in the local Software Design competition and after various local rounds, the top five teams presented their solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems such as environmental sustainability, health, and piracy to a panel of judges at the local finals.  With an excited audience of over 250 attendees, Samer Abu-Ltaif, General Manager Microsoft Gulf, kicked off the event with a keynote speech about student innovation.

By the end of the day the first place winners were announced: Shawn Frank and Ronak Dave of Team RevolUtion with project ‘Reutilizar’, a web-based mobile platform application that helps restaurants and manufacturers get paid for selling food waste to biofuel plants for the creation of energy.

Team RevolUtion will represent the UAE at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in July. Congratulations!

Imagine Cup 2012 – United States

The Imagine Cup 2012 US Finals took place at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It was a very successful and exciting three day event that started on Friday 20 April and ended with the winners’ announcement on Monday 23 April. This year, over 113,000 students registered to compete in the US Software Design competition with 22 teams travelling to the local finals in Redmond to compete for a spot to represent the US in Australia.

The competition was very close but in the end, Team FlashFood from Arizona State University won 1st place with their real-time food recovery solution. The application uses ASP.NET, SMS texting, Windows Phone, Silverlight and Visual Studio to coordinate same-day food donation deliveries from restaurants with food surplus to families in need. FlashFood team member Jake Irvin commented shortly after the announcement:

“It was a lot of anxiety, I was telling myself that even if we didn’t win first place, we did a really good job, and Microsoft has treated us really well. We really wanted to win, but we knew if we didn’t win, we’d still made it a long way and we talked to a lot of great people at Microsoft.”

Read more about the team’s inspiration and the FlashFood project in this article from the Microsoft News Center.

Congratulations and see you down under in Sydney!

Hi. I’m Rob Miles, Competition Captain for Software Design. I teach Computer Science at The University of Hull and I’ve been involved in the Imagine Cup for all of the ten years it has been around. You can find out more about what I’m up to in my blog, www.robmiles.com. I thought I’d write about a few things that might help you make your great entries even greater.

More is Not Always More

Sometimes when you are building your entry you start to think about what you can add. However, adding extras is not always a good plan. If you are thinking about adding an extra feature you should ask the hard question “How does this new feature build on the central theme of our entry?” If the answer is “it doesn’t really” then you should probably not include it. Every time you increase the “footprint” of your solution you dilute the central idea and add to your workload. I’ve seen lots of entries that have a great central idea which is then bogged down by lots of other details that aren’t really important. If you want to add value to your solution the best way to do this is to make it more credible. Spend more time getting it into the hands of the users and getting their feedback. Make sure you have a strong story on how you are going make the system viable. Find sponsors if you need them, or get professionals in the field to praise your solution and continue to build your solution based on that feedback. Remember that adding a feature doesn’t mean that it will add value to your solution.

Show Your Solution to People You Don’t Know

Your friends, family and teachers all like you. They care about you and worry about giving you critical feedback. Therefore they aren’t the best people to evaluate your solution, as they won’t always tell it like it is. What you want are people who have never met you before, and have no reason to like you other than the system that you are showing them. This might hurt the first time you do it, especially if they tell you they can’t understand what your solution does, or how to use it. Nevertheless,  you should capture their feedback which will likely add a huge amount of value to your solution, and you’ll get some great stories that you can use to improve your entry.

Go End to End

Make sure you and your teammates have worked through your solution all the way from the start to the end. You might have lots of separate parts that fit together to make the entire solution. Make sure you can take a user all the way through your system from start to finish, from creating the first username (if that’s what the system does) to printing out the last report (if that’s what the system does). I’ve seen systems demonstrated as “snapshots” of different parts of the design that don’t give a feel for how the whole thing fits together. Make sure you have gone through the entire lifecycle of an interaction with your system.

Do Things That Scare You a Little Bit

Sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone to get the best results. This might mean approaching sponsors for help, asking people you’ve never met what they think of your idea or standing up and speaking in front of an audience when you’d really rather not. The Imagine Cup is not just about solving some of the world’s toughest problems; it is also about your growth as a person. Don’t be afraid to do these things. One of my favourite sayings is “What doesn’t kill you makes a really good blog post”. Remember that whatever happens, you’ll still be standing afterwards, you’ll have learned something from it, and maybe have a good story to tell. And sometimes you will get what you want out of the exchange.

Enjoy Yourself

The Imagine Cup is about using technical innovation to solve problems. But it is also about fun. Make sure you take time you enjoy yourself. You are with your friends, doing something you really enjoy. Ensure you make the best of it. And remember, your Imagine Cup entry is not the only great thing that you will do in your life. It is just one of the first ones.

Rob Miles
- Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Captain

Calling all Metro Style App Challenge competitors! The Round 2 end date is fast approaching, hopefully your apps are taking shape and getting ready to be submitted.  Your entry must consist of a Metro Style App Design Summary document that outlines how you applied the judging criteria and a Metro Style App Demo video that shows your app in action. Don’t forget to check the Official Rules Document for all the details, including how to submit your entry. Please double-check the details of your entry before you submit, don’t get disqualified on a technicality!

As you prepare your entry materials, here are some things to keep in mind:

A good app design addresses a specific user need or goal and does that thing, whatever it is, with excellence. Make your app great at doing the thing that it’s designed to do. In your App Summary document, make sure that you can concisely describe what your app does and why it’s great at it.

When you’re describing how you applied the judging criteria in the first part of the App Summary document, be specific. For example, describe why you designed your app’s snap view the way you did – maybe you anticipate users going through different scenarios while in snap view versus full-screen, and only certain elements of your app need to be available in snap view. If you chose to not implement certain Windows 8 platform features, tell us why. For example, if using the File Picker has no place in your user scenarios, don’t be afraid to say so and explain why. Your first goal is to build the best experience for your users to do what you set out to help them accomplish. You won’t lose points for keeping your app focused on your user goals and making smart choices to avoid cluttering your app with functionality that doesn’t help your users do what your app is designed for.

In the second part of the App Summary document, include as many screenshots as you like to show what you built. The document will be limited somewhat by file size (remember, the max size for your zipped entry is 250MB) so think about what’s best to show in screenshots and what would show off best in your video. For example, you can show your live tile through screenshots in the document by getting a screen capture of how your tile looks with each of the notifications and/or badges that it displays. But save any animations you included for the video, where we’ll be able to see them happen in the context of your app.

Your video must show that your submission is a working, functional Metro style app – not a desktop app and not merely a design or prototype – and that it runs in Windows 8 Consumer Preview. To show that your app is a Metro style app, you can capture launching it using the app’s tile on the Start screen. To show that it’s running on Consumer Preview, you can show the System window accessed by right-clicking the Computer tile on the Start screen and choosing Properties from the App Bar.

As always, if you have questions you can post in the Challenge forum. I’ve been posting short spotlights there on each member of the senior judges panel, go check them out to get to know the judges.

See you in Sydney!

Jura Clapman
- Imagine Cup 2012 Windows Metro Style App Challenge Captain

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countries all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Japan

The Software Design Local Finals took place on 7 April in Tokyo, Japan. A very successful event with 100 onsite attendees and over 4,500 people tuned in to the live streaming. After a very intense competition between the 12 finalist teams, Team Coccolo from Tokyo National College of Technology won first prize with their solution "All Light".

Their solution aims at reducing energy consumption by implementing a LED lamp system optimized by visible light communication technology developed using Windows Phone and Windows Azure. The team is very excited to represent Japan on a world stage at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Australia - Congratulations! Check out this great story about the local event written by Masa, a Microsoft Student Partner from Japan.

Imagine Cup 2012 - Russia

The Russian Software Design Local Finals took place on 14 April in Moscow. The event was a huge success with over 500 attendees including 45 competitors, 420 students, 20 Microsoft Student Partners as well as judges and VIP guests.

The 10 teams competing for a spot at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals were chosen from over 76 teams who submitted an entry in 5 Software Design regional rounds, culminating in the big event in Moscow. These top teams presented their solution to a panel of judges with over 4,600 people watching via the online broadcast, and in the end the 1st place was awarded to Team Bonjour Development and their project "M.D. Voice".

"M.D. Voice" is a system for early diagnosis of throat diseases built using a Windows Phone 7 client application as well as a cloud-based analysis service. It works by analyzing a user's voice to determine a possible disease, such as throat cancer, by simply speaking into a mobile phone. These students are all from differerent universities: Tomsk University of Radioelectronics and Control, the Research Institute of Information Transmission Problems and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and together they will represent Russia in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Turkey

On 13 April, 20 students from 5 teams competed for the opportunity to represent Turkey at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals. The event was kicked off by Melek Pulatkonak, the Developer Platform Evangelist Lead from Microsoft Turkey, with an inspiring speech inviting the over 100 student attendees to dream big and use new technologies to overcome tough challenges.

Team Repharm from Eskişehir Osmangazi University won first place with a very clear mission in mind: reduce the amount of medicine that goes to waste. Team members Serap Şen, Derya Gündüz, Abdulvahap Demir, Bedrettin Sümer and their mentor Nihat Adar, developed this solution with the objective of reintroducing unused and unexpired medicine back into circulation by allocating the excess medicine to the homes of those in need.

Congratulations and see you in Sydney!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Ukraine

The Ukrainian Software Design Local Finals were held on 5 April at the Microsoft Ukraine Headquarters. Imagine Cup is very popular in the Ukraine and this year the competition was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education. More than 8,000 students registered to compete in Software Design with 29 teams submitting their solution in this year's local competition.

After an intense round of online presentations, the number of teams was narrowed down to represent the best 8 projects. On 5 April over 100 people attended the event anxious to know which team would represent Ukraine at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals. After a round of presentations, judges selected the top 3 teams, with Team QuadSquad as the ultimate 1st place winner!

Team members Stepanov Anton, Posternikov Anton, Osika Maksym, Yasakov Valeriy and their mentor Samoilenko Dmytro from the Donetsk Computer Academy developed "Step", a solution that converts sign language into sounds using Windows Phone 7, Windows 8, Bluetooth technology and augmented reality gloves. Congratulations to Team QuadSquad!

Editor’s Note: Today, April 23rd, Microsoft announced that Team FlashFood won first place in the U.S. Imagine Cup Software Design competition and will travel to Sydney, Australia, to represent the U.S. in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals this summer. The team was awarded $8,000, a Windows Phone for each member, and $10,000 donation to Arizona State University, where they are all attending college. Runners-up included The Miracle Workers (Second Place, $4,000), Team Physically Kinected (Third Place, $3,000), and Team KinectMath (Fourth Place, $1,000).

In the Game Design: Phone competition, Team Drexel Dragons was awarded $6,000 and a donation to Drexel University for the amount of $10,000. Runners-up included Team Pigmaster (Second Place, $3,000), Team Wasabi Ninja (Third Place, $2,000), and Panther Games Team Alpha (Fourth Place, $1,000).

In the Game Design: Xbox competition, Team Dr. Fishbowl was awarded $6,000 and a donation to Carnegie Mellon University for the amount of $10,000. Runners-up included Team Digital Infinity (Second Place, $3,000), Team Credit / No Credit (Third Place, $2,000), and Team Zigers (Fourth Place, $1,000).

Read the full story here.

Heading into the U.S. national finals, Microsoft’s signature technology competition has reached 1.25 million students worldwide over the past 10 years.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 20, 2012 — Across every industry — from healthcare to transportation and agriculture to infrastructure — the world has a never-ending need for inspired minds to find creative solutions that solve tough challenges. Yet it’s been estimated that 1 million science and engineering jobs will go unfilled in the U.S. alone over the next three to five years.

According to Mark Hindsbo, vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Developer & Platform Evangelism Group, that’s why programs like the Imagine Cup are so important. Encouraging students to develop technology-based solutions for real-world issues, and inspiring them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has been the mission of Microsoft’s signature technology competition for the past decade. Hindsbo has been involved with the competition since its beginnings. Every year, he says, the judges are amazed by the contestants’ projects and enthusiasm.

Read the full story here.

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countires all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Korea

Korea hosted their Local Software Design Finals on 30 March in Songdo, South Korea. The event was a huge success with 76 competitors represeting the top 10 Software Design teams, 59 Microsoft Student Partners, 400 students, 31 professors and 26 VIP guests all joining in on the experience. The finalist teams had a chance to showcase their idea to the general public, United Nations officials and local media representatives prior to the awards ceremony. During the local finals, 400 students had the chance to judge the competing projects via SMS!

Team members DaeYong Han, HaeJin Kweon, HaeKwang Lee, HyukJoong Kwon and their mentor MyungHoe Kim won first place with their project Let IT Bee.

Let IT Bee is a solution allowing people to save the earth by saving bees. It consists of a monitoring system built on Azure and a Web/Mobile based dashboard. They hope their project will get people interested in beekeeping and allow them to engage in this activity remotely. Through it, they can ensure environmental sustainability – one of the UN's Millenium Development Goals. For this reason, Let IT Bee was also awarded the “World Federation of UN Association Award”. The team will be conducting field testing in partnership with the City of Seoul starting in May. Congratulations!

Watch this video and re-live some of the most exciting moments of the Korean Imagine Cup 2012 local finals!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Kuwait

For the first time on 9 April, Microsoft held Imagine Cup local finals in Kuwait to select the team that will represent Kuwait at the Worldwside Finals in Sydeny, Australia. Students from all over the country submitted their projects and the top 5 teams met face to face on 9 April to present their Software Design solutions to a panel of judges.

Projects ranged from shipment tracking and monitoring solutions, to educational innovations and health applications. The event was kicked off by Ehab Mostafa, Country Manager Microsoft Kuwait who addressed the 350 attendees in the audience including  26 news representatives present at the award ceremony who provided extensive media coverage on local radio and television networks.

After listening to each team present their solution, the panel of judges selected the winner: Team Code Breakers with their Kinect based solution 'Universal Sign System'. Team members Mohammed AlShatti, Abdullah Alshaya, Khaled Al-Jassar and Khaled W. Al-Qahtani secured first place with their application that recognizes sign language and synthesizes it into a human voice, allowing easy spoken conversations for those who need to communicate with sign language.

Plane ticket and trophy in hand, these teams are ready to start their journey to the Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia - Congratulations!

2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition. For a decade, students have shown the world their innovative solutions to help improve and change the lives of people around the globe. This year, we celebrated by making the experience of joining the Imagine Cup community even more fun and rewarding!

Students all over the world participated in the Imagine Cup 10th Anniversary Sweepstakes for a chance to win a life-changing trip to the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia and other cool prizes.

Congratulations to all 30 of the Weekly Prize winners, who will each receive a Kinect for Xbox 360, and the two winners of the Competitor Prize that will be receiving a Sony VAIO PC + Camcorder, see the full list of winners here.

We are excited to announce the lucky winner of the Sweepstakes Grand Prize:

Congratulations to Ramjith M. from India!! Here's what Ramjith has to say about winning the trip to Sydney:

"I would say that I am a 19 year old student who is doing his 2nd year of B.tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering in St. Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology, Pala, Kerala. Computer gaming is my primary hobby. My other hobbies are playing basketball and travelling. I love to travel, see new places and to meet new people. I also love adventures trips. Skydiving is at the top of my bucket list. Photography is one of my passions."

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Sweepstakes and joined a student community that’s applying technology where it matters most – to help solve the world’s toughest problems.

- The Microsoft Imagine Cup Team.

The Imagine Cup 2012 Software Design Local Finals are taking place in over 70 countires all around the world! As each local competition comes to an end, we will highlight the winners who will be competing at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia!

Imagine Cup 2012 - Albania

For the first time, Albania hosted a local Software Design Competition, and what a huge success! Students from over 20 Universities competed in the local rounds and on 15 March the winner was announced: Congratulations to Team RedBananas from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Tirana Public University who will represent Albania in Sydney!

Their project, called 'Albania Business to Business e-trade', uses Microsoft.Net framework Version 4.0; SQL Server 2008; C#; Bing Maps and aims at promoting local products and facilitating exchange on the market.

"We had an excellent time as a team, long hours of work and fun at the same time, many hours exchanging ideas and information, many wonderful moments which were every second well spent. The prize has already changed our life – we are at the center of the media, many companies are approaching us with job offers and training opportunities. We made friends from other schools in the country. We will recommend Imagine Cup to all our friends and younger co-fellow students. It’s the best way to prove that you are worth working with. Imagine Cup rocks!"

The competition was made possible through partnerships and collaboration between Microsoft and USAID, the Government of Albania, private sector businesses and educational institutions. You can read more about the Imagine Cup Local Finals in Albania on the USAID Press Release.

Imagine Cup 2012 - Palestine

Another great Software Design competition amongst students from various Palestinian Universities! The competition was intense, and the final round saw three teams head to head for first place. After presenting for 20 minutes to an esteemed panel of judges composed of local software industry leaders, IT leads, and venture capitalists, the team who will be representing Palestine at the Worldwide Finals in Sydeny is...Team FlyKit from An-Najah University!

Team FlyKit's winning project, called 'Blind Guidance System' and inspired by more than 40 million visually impaired people in the world, is a software/hardware solution aimed at helping the visually impaired to arrive at their destination autonomously by utilizing a live voice feedback system. Their solution helps blind users easily perform most essential daily tasks on their own through a variety of Microsoft technologies like Kinect, Windows Azure, Windows Phone and Bing Maps.

Imagine Cup 2012 - South Africa

The South Aftican Software Design Local Finals were held on 14 December 2011 and Joshua Leibstein of Team Asclepius is the first Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finalist! With his image processing application that helps detect tuberculosis at an early stage, he will represent South Africa at the Worldwide Finals in Sydney!

"I was inspired to create a solution to a serious medical problem in South Africa where TB affects the population on so many levels, socially and economically." says Joshua. “The early detection system has the potential to increase the success level of TB-related treatments available to rural and underdeveloped areas as well as lending an invaluable hand to radiologists in identifying areas that have a high probability of containing tuberculosis structures as result of their texture properties".

Joshua will continue to develop his project as part of his master's thesis and hopes the system can undergo field trials in the not too distant future.

Congratulation to these teams - See you in Sydney!

The Imagine Cup provides exciting competition opportunities for all students! Are you interested in building an app? Does building a gadget prototype that leverages natural user interface motivate you?

Sign up and compete today! Among many other cool incentives and prizes, you could win a trip to the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia, 6-10, July 2012!

OPPORTUNITIES TO COMPETE:

Windows Metro Style App Challenge sponsored by Microsoft Windows

Participating in Round 1 is easy! You just need to pass a short quiz to automatically advance your team to Round 2 where you’ll be asked to design and build a Metro style Windows app that helps make the world a better place.

Hurry – there is only one quiz left! Learn more about taking the remaining quiz on 6 March.

Did you miss the information sessions with Captain Jura Clapman? No problem, we have archived the recordings! Watch Captain Jura describe the Windows Metro Style App Challenge and provide helpful hints about competing successfully: Session 1 and Session 2.

Kinect Fun Labs Challenge sponsored by Microsoft Studios

This Challenge will test your team’s ability to build a gadget that leverages natural user interface features such as skeletal tracking, speech recognition, face recognition, and gestures – all while solving the world’s toughest problems. We will provide you with state-of-the-art tools to develop Kinect Fun Labs style applications on your PC. And… the top 100 teams that advance to Round 2 will receive a free Kinect for Windows sensor!

Hurry – Round 1 submissions are due by 23:59 PM GMT on 6 March 2012. You just need to submit a project plan!

Did you miss the information sessions with Captain Dan Waters? No problem, we have archived the recordings! Watch Captain Dan describe the Kinect Fun Labs Challenge and provide helpful hints about submitting a successful entry: Session 1 and Session 2.

Windows Azure Challenge

This Challenge will test your team’s ability to create a web application that helps solve some of the world’s toughest problems. And… the top 100 teams that advance to Round 2 will receive a free Azure 180-day pass on which to build their application!

Hurry – Round 1 submissions are due by 23:59 PM GMT on 13 March 2012. You just need to submit an application summary and SketchFlow prototype!

Did you miss the information sessions with Captain Jen Perret? No problem, we have archived the recordings! Watch Captain Jen describe the Windows Azure Challenge and provide helpful hints about submitting a successful entry: Session 1 and Session 2.

Windows Phone Challenge sponsored by Nokia

This Challenge will test your team’s ability to create a Windows Phone app that helps solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

Hurry – Round 1 submissions are due by 23:59 PM GMT on 13 March 2012. You just need to submit an application summary and SketchFlow prototype!

Did you miss the information sessions with Captain Jukka Wallasvaara? No problem, we have archived the recordings! Watch Captain Jukka describe the Windows Phone Challenge and provide helpful hints about submitting a successful entry: Session 1 and Session 2.

Software Design

All teams who are competing in Software Design, either locally in your country/region or online through imaginecup.com, are required to complete and submit a Preliminary Summary at imaginecup.com by the close of Round 1 on 13 March 2012. The Preliminary Summary must be submitted in addition to any materials your team must submit locally.

Find out if your country/region is hosting a local Software Design Competition.

Did you miss the information sessions with Captain Rob Miles? No problem, we have archived the recordings! Watch Captain Rob Miles describe the Software Design Competition and provide helpful hints about submitting a successful entry: Session 1 and Session 2.

Celebrating 10 Years – Tell Your Imagine Cup Story

Are you a previous Imagine Cup competitor? We want you to share your Imagine Cup journey with the world. Your story could be highlighted on imaginecup.com! We will feature as many new stories as we can. Please answer the following questions and send them to stories@imaginecup.com, and don’t forget to include a picture of you and your team. All responses need to be in English, please.

1. Why did you choose the Imagine Cup competition?
2. What inspired you to create your project?
3. What year did your team compete and what was your team name?
4. What are you doing now with your project?

• Join the Imagine Cup 2012 Facebook community.
• Follow us on Twitter. Don’t forget to use hashtag #ImagineCup when you tweet about Imagine Cup.
• Check the latest news on the Imagine Cup blog.
• Chat with the competition captains and other students around the world on the Imagine Cup forums.

“In 2012, 80% of new commercial enterprise apps will be deployed on cloud platforms” (IDC). Clearly cloud computing is a big opportunity that you won’t want to miss. The Windows Azure Challenge is a great way to prepare yourself for a future building with cloud platforms - it challenges you to leverage the Windows Azure platform to design a website that tackles the world’s toughest problems.

So you want to know more about the Windows Azure Challenge? This Challenge was created to provide an easy way for you to begin exploring the Windows Azure platform. Working towards the Imagine Cup 2012 theme “Imagine a world where technology solves the world’s toughest problems” means you will need to be ready to deal with the scale. When we say scale, we’re talking about solutions that address either a large number of users, a large amount of data, or the needs to drive really large computational problems.  This is where the Windows Azure platform can support your solutions to solve the world’s toughest problems at scale.

But we don’t want this challenge to be daunting so we made it simple for you to enter. For Round 1, all you need to do is to design a prototype design of a website using Expression SketchFlow. You won’t even need to worry about Windows Azure just yet.  Then for all teams who move on to Round 2, you will need to demonstrate how to leverage the Windows Azure platform to support your web solution.  This could include simply acting as the Hosting Service for your site or you could explore solving problems with BIG Data.  As long as we are talking big, you could even consider creating a web solution that you could actually sell as a Software as a Service solution to support organizations who are trying to tackle the world’s toughest problems.

So don’t miss this opportunity to enter the Windows Azure – like we said, it’s simple so you have nothing to lose.  We know the future will be about Connected Devices and the Continuous Services supporting them and we hope you enter the Windows Azure Challenge to get yourself started in building this future!

- Jennifer Perret, Imagine Cup 2012 Windows Azure Challenge Captain and the Imagine Cup Team.

If you’re a student who loves developing on the latest and greatest technology platforms, we encourage you to check out the Imagine Cup 2012 Windows Metro Style App Challenge which invites students to solve the world’s toughest problems by designing and building apps built for Windows 8. In Round 1 of this Challenge you will participate in a quiz related to Windows 8; in Round 2 you will design and build a Metro style app for Windows 8!  To qualify for Round 2, all you need to do is get 50% or more on one of the quizzes.

The final quiz is happening on March 6, 2012. Hope to see you in Sydney!

Remember David Hayden with Team Note-Taker from Imagine Cup 2010 and 2011? Today he had the opportunity to participate in the second White House Science Fair along with Jacen Sherman and Hannah Wyman from Kodu Cup. You can learn more about David’s experience and hear from the Kodu Cup winners on the Citizenship blog. Congratulations!

Last Friday, students from the winning teams of the inaugural year of the Imagine Cup Grants program had the opportunity to demonstrate their technology prototypes and share their ideas with Bill Gates and Brad Smith. You can read about their experience at the World Economic Forum and their resulting conversations with Bill and Brad in the Microsoft Feature Story, Will the Next Bill Gates Please Step Up: Young Entrepreneurs Meet Microsoft’s Founder.

Imagine Cup 2012 registration is still open; sign up, assemble your team and start developing your technology design today!