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"Imagine Cup provides a forum for students around the world to explore new ways to use the power of software to help address some of the world's toughest challenges," said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. "The high caliber of the students and their projects is evidence of the high level of innovation seen in the student community today, with a clear potential for real-world impact."
The software design, embedded development and game development finalist teams created applications, devices and games using the Microsoft platform and Microsoft tools based on the Imagine Cup competition theme "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment."
A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions competed in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, "Project Hoshimi" (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to digital media or technology depending on the invitational.
The winners were announced in a gala awards ceremony this afternoon during the Imagine Cup World Festival, a celebration drawing Imagine Cup competitors, mentors and other key attendees. It featured keynote addresses from several dignitaries from around the world. The following are the top three finalists by invitational in finishing order:
Software Design -- First place: Australia - Team SOAK Team Members: David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, Ed Hooper, Long Zheng -- Second place: Slovakia - Team Housekeepers Team Members: Marian Honsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Simko, Dusan Zelenik -- Third place: Hungary - Team DigitalMania Team Members: Akos Kapui, Laszlo Zold, Balint Orosz, Gergely Orosz Embedded Development -- First place: Singapore - Team Trail Blazers Team Members: Pinto James Dominic, Shi Ben Yong, Hu Shuhan, Denver Lim -- Second place: TIE Ireland - Team AcidRain Team Members: Brian Byrne, Aodhan Coffey, Karl O'Dwyer China - Team Wings Team Members: Shibiao Xu, Junjie Li, Zhongjie Wang, Lei Yan -- Third place: Poland - Team Aero@PUT Team Members: Piotr Kryger, Mikolaj Malaczynski, Jakub Pawlowski, Piotr Slezak Game Development -- First place: Brazil - Team Mother Gaia Studio Team Members: Guilherme Campos, Helena Van Kampen, Rafael F. Costa, Tulio Soria -- Second place: Belgium - Team Drunk Puppy Productions Team Members: Kenny Deriemaeker, Filip Van Bouwel, Timothy Vanherberghen, Jeroen van Raevels -- Third place: Korea - Team GOMZ Team Members: Kim Dong Hoon, Kim Ki Hwan, Park Min Kyu "Project Hoshimi" (Programming Battle) -- First place: Russia - Team Red Devils Team Members: Ilya Grebnov, Sergei Grebnov -- Second place: China - Team Zephyr Team Members: Peng Guo, Jiaze Huang -- Third place: Ukraine - Team Dream Team Team Members: Pavlo Liapota, Margaryta Skrypachova IT Challenge -- First place: France - Jean-Benoit Paux -- Second place: Romania - Cosmin-Viorel Ilie -- Third place: China - Yan Liu Algorithm -- First place: Ukraine - Roman Koshlyak -- Second place: Hungary - Szilveszter Szebeni -- Third place: Japan - Naohiro Takahashi Photography -- First place: United States - Team Provisio Team Members: Jennifer Hui, Melissa Hui -- Second place: Austria - Team Austria Team Members: Rosa Maria Binder, Benedikt Wurth -- Third place: Croatia - Team Voodoo Delirum Team Members: Duje Nebojsa Pandzic, Martin Stokic Short Film -- First place: Korea - Team NEIP Team Members: Il Jin Joung, Seong Ran An, Yeun Jun Choo, Sung Wook Lee -- Second place: Mexico - Team Lava Lamp Team Members: Grace Montoya, Aldo Murillo -- Third place: Canada - Robotree Team Members: Drake Birmann, Ryan Morrison, Media Ridha, Dan Tran Interface Design -- First place: United States - Team IU EcoVis Team Members: David Roedl, William Odom -- Second place: Canada - TeamGreeNet Team Members: Jin Fan, Kevin Muise -- Third place: France - Team Edelweiss Team Members: Johanna Rowe, Steven Muhr
In addition to the category awards, five Achievement Awards were presented.
-- The Rural Innovation Achievement Award, sponsored by Microsoft's
Unlimited Potential Group, is designed to recognize the software solution that
contributes toward a more sustainable environment and best helps promote the
social and economic growth of underserved populations in developing countries
and regions and best helps them better meet their basic needs. It was won by
-- The Accessible Technology Achievement Award, designed to recognize the
interface design solution that makes it easier for anyone to see, hear and use
a computer, and to customize their computing environment according to their
own preferences, needs and abilities, was won by
-- The Interoperability Achievement Award, designed to recognize the
software solution that best leverages Microsoft technologies to connect
people, data or diverse systems to help address real-world customer needs, was
won by
-- The Windows Live Achievement Award, designed to recognize the software
solution that makes the best use of the Windows Live platform and adds new
social dimensions to both new and old Web sites and Web projects, was won by
-- The Engineering Excellence Achievement Award, sponsored by Microsoft's Enterprise Engineering Center, is designed to recognize three outstanding teams from the Software Development category that have created solutions that demonstrate the potential to be developed to scale with focused guidance from a Microsoft engineer, was won by the following:
-- Bulgaria - Team Atlas Team Members: Boryana Miloshevska, Dobromira Ivanova, Martin Damyanov, Yordan Pavlov -- USA - Team Sparx Team Members: Adam Risi, Zachery Shivers, Ziyan Zhou -- Russia - Team Ignition Team Members: Anatoly Nikitin, Roman Belov, Daria Elkina
Furthermore, six finalist teams will have the opportunity to explore how their software solutions could potentially turn into business realities. The teams will receive intense business and technology training as part of the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program, co-sponsored by Microsoft and British Telecommunications plc (BT).
"The creativity demonstrated by the competitors this year has shown that
tomorrow's technology leaders are ready to apply their solutions to real-world
issues," said
The six teams chosen to participate in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program are the following:
-- Australia - Team SOAK (Smart Operational Agricultural toolKit) Team members: David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, Ed Hooper, Long Zheng -- France - Team Well K'Home Team Members: Regis Hanol, Gauthier Chanliau, Sebastien Warin, Jean-Noel Gauthier -- Germany - Team PoinT-Power in Time Team Members: Daniel Franke, Jorn Schindler, Vasilios Filippidis, Axel Ernst -- Hungary - Team Digital Mania Team Members: Akos Kapui, Laszlo Zold, Balint Orosz, Gergely Orosz -- Slovakia - Team Housekeepers Team Members: Marian Honsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Simko, Dusan Zelenik -- South Africa - Team Smile Team Members: Devin de Vries, Christopher King, Nabeel Nazeer, Nadeem Isaacs
Imagine Cup 2009 will be held in
Registrations for Imagine Cup 2009 open today,
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.