July 2008 - Posts

• Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners!

  Stay up-to-date on today's events with the following resources! Imagine Cup 2008 Worldwide Finals Blog Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom Finalist Team Profiles World Finals Portal Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners Students address environmental sustainability with innovative technology; torch passes to Egypt for Imagine Cup 2009. PARIS - July 8, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2008 at the Musée du Louvre, after a week of intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 200,000 students from over 100 countries and regions. Celebrating first place, Australia's Team SOAK won the worldwide Software Design invitational, Singapore's Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational, and Brazil's Mother Gaia Studio won the Game Development challenge. Imagine Cup, the world's premier competition for technology students, gives students the chance to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today. "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: Marián Hönsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Šimko, Dušan Zeleník Third place: Hungary - Team DigitalMania Team Members: Ákos Kapui, Laszló Zöld, Bálint 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, Mikołaj Małaczyński, Jakub Pawłowski, Piotr Slęzak Game Development First place: Brazil - Team Mother Gaia Studio Team Members: Guilherme Campos, Helena Van Kampen, Rafael F. Costa, Túlio Sória 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 ***, Melissa *** Second place: Austria - Team Austria Team Members: Rosa Maria Binder, Benedikt Wurth Third place: Croatia - Team Voodoo Delirum Team Members: Duje Nebojša Pandžić, Martin Štokić 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 Member: 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 Indonesia's Antarmuka: Arief Widhiyasa, Dimas Yusuf Danurwenda, Ella Madanella Dwi Mustika and Erga Ghaniya. 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 Jeffrey Bigham, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science from the University of Washington, United States, for Project WebAnywhere. An additional onsite challenge was won by France's Team JivAd: Jivane Rajabaly and Adrien Ossorguine. 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 India's Team SKAN: Sameet Singh Khajuria, Karun AB, Amith George, Noel Sequeira. 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 Spain's Windows Drive: CarlosJunquera Cachero, David Rodriguez, Héctor Juan and Miguel Llopis. 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 Joe Black, director of Business Development for Emerging Technologies, BT. "The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator is an exceptional opportunity for young developers to explore the entrepreneurial possibilities of their software solutions. We are excited to offer our encouragement, guidance, and support to these talented students through comprehensive training sessions to help students bring their ideas to fruition." 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, Jörn Schindler, Vasilios Filippidis, Axel Ernst Hungary - Team Digital Mania Team Members: Ákos Kapui, Laszló Zöld, Bálint Orosz, Gergely Orosz Slovakia - Team Housekeepers Team Members: Marián Hönsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Šimko, Dušan Zeleník South Africa - Team Smile Team Members: Devin de Vries, Christopher King, Nabeel Nazeer, Nadeem Isaacs Imagine Cup 2009 will be held in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. The theme will be "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." Students will be asked to create software solutions that are aligned to one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs range from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education. More information about the MDGs can be found at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. Registrations for Imagine Cup 2009 open today, July 8, 2008. More information about Imagine Cup can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com/. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. #########   For more information, press only: Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com   For more information, European press only: Microsoft EMEA Response Centre, emearesponse@waggeneredstrom.com Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft's corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.     Posted Jul 08 2008, 09:41 AM by Lisa with no comments

• Top Teams announced for Software Design, Embedded Development, and Game Development!

  The Top 6 teams have been announced for Software Design and Embedded Development and the top 3 Teams announced for Game Development. These teams will be making their Round 2 presentations to judges at the Louvre Museum in Paris starting tomorrow! Stay up to day on each day's events with the Imagine Cup Team and Channel 8! Visit the Official Imagine Cup Blog Watch Channel 8 for a daily video blog from Joe Wilson, Senior Director of Academic Initiatives at Microsoft, as well as daily interviews with teams Other helpful Links include: World Finals Portal: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/finals.aspx List of Teams: http://imaginecup.com/competition/finalists.aspx We congratulate the following teams on their exceptional achievement! Software Design Finalists Australia - SOAK (Smart Operational Agricultural toolKit) Team members: David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, Ed Hooper, Long Zheng Brazil - Ecologix Team Members: Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues, Eduardo Sonnino, Renato Ferreria, Roberto Sonnino China - UniqueStudio Team Members: Jing Pan, Yang Liu, Haojian Jin, Zhou Yan Hungary - Digital Mania Team Members: Ákos Kapui, Laszló Zöld, Bálint Orosz, Gergely Orosz Portugal - (void*) Team Members: André Sousa, Marco Barbosa, Martinha Rocha, José Faria Slovakia - Housekeepers Team Members: Marián Hönsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Šimko, Dušan Zeleník Embedded Development Finalists China - Wings Team Members: Shibiao Xu, Junjie Li, Zhongjie Wang, Lei Yan Ireland - Acid Rain Team Members: Brian Byrne, Aodhan Coffey, Karl O'Dyer Korea - Here Rose Team Members: Hyon Lim, Aram So Poland - Aero@PUT Team Members: Piotr Kryger, Mikołaj Małaczyński, Jakub Pawłowski, Piotr Slęzak Singapore - Trail Blazers Team Members: Pinto James Dominic, Shi Ben Yong, Hu Shuhan, Denver Lim Ukraine - Sun Round Sky Around Team Members: Tsopa Oleksandra, Makovetskiy Sergey, Tkalich Inna Game Development Finalists Belgium - Drunk Puppy Productions Team Members: Kenny Deriemaeker, Filip Van Bouwel, Timothy Vanherberghen, Jeroen Raevels Brazil - Mother Gaia Studio Team Members: Guilherme Campos, Helena Van Kampen, Rafael F. Costa, Túlio Sória Korea - Gomz Team Members: Kim Dong Hoon, Kim Ki Hwan, Park Min Kyu Posted Jul 06 2008, 12:05 PM by Lisa with no comments

• Imagine Cup 2008 is Underway in Paris!

  Largest technology competition in the world kicks off its finals today in Paris. PARIS - July 3, 2008 - Competition begins today for 370 students from 61 countries and regions competing for $240,000 in prize money at the Imagine Cup 2008, an annual competition that gives students around the world the chance to unlock their creative genius and create technology solutions that can help address some of the world's toughest social challenges. The focus for Imagine Cup 2008 is on building technology solutions that help address challenging environmental sustainability issues. From a pool of over 200,000 participants, 124 teams have been selected to represent their countries in Paris for a week of competition around their innovative technology solutions. These student-developed solutions range from improving access to clean water, reducing pollution and carbon emissions to achieving sustainable cities and reducing demand on energy. "Imagine Cup inspires these students to address the world's challenges in new ways and deliver innovative technology solutions that can truly change the world for the better," said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International. "We hope that some of these students will become the entrepreneurs of the future, innovating and creating jobs like some of the previous winners. We wish all the finalists the best of luck in what will be an intense week of competition." Students and teams compete in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals across nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, "Project Hoshimi" (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. Individual students and teams are in the final stages of a yearlong competition and will undertake a series of onsite challenges relating to technology and digital media depending on the category. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 8, as part of the Imagine Cup World Festival closing ceremonies. "For me, the Imagine Cup was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the power of software, make new friends from around the globe who share my passion for innovation and technology, and leverage the event as a starting point for my career," said Vincent Bellet, a finalist from Imagine Cup 2006. "After the Imagine Cup final, I received more than 50 job offers from different companies. To win the French finals and to be a worldwide finalist for a competition sponsored by Microsoft has been a great plus on my resume." In coordination with Imagine Cup, Microsoft, together with INSEAD, the Women in IT forum and the European Schoolnet, will be hosting a high-level round table to raise awareness of and direct policy attention to the need for promoting greater participation of young women in technology and science studies. The Imagine Cup, now in its sixth year, challenges students to imagine a better world enabled by their own talent and also to contribute directly to the future of technology, software and computing. Teams develop innovative technological and digital media projects that offer real-world solutions to real-world problems. Stay up to day on each day's events with the Imagine Cup Team and Channel 8! Visit the Official Imagine Cup Blog Watch Channel 8 for a daily video blog from Joe Wilson, Senior Director of Academic Initiatives at Microsoft, as well as daily interviews with teams Other helpful Links include: World Finals Portal: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/finals.aspx List of Teams: http://imaginecup.com/competition/finalists.aspx Posted Jul 04 2008, 03:33 PM by Lisa with no comments