Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup Logo

ImagineCup logo

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world's toughest challenges. The Imagine Cup comprises five major technology competitions, including Software Design, and four challenges (although the challenge number is updated annually). All Imagine Cup competitors create projects that address the Imagine Cup theme: "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems". Started in 2003, it has steadily grown in size, with more than 358,000 competitors representing 183 countries and regions in 2011. The Imagine Cup Worldwide finals have been held all over the globe. The Imagine Cup 2015 Worldwide Finals will be held in Seattle, USA.^[1][2]

History

Mistory group - 2015

The Imagine Cup began in 2003 with approximately 1,000 competitors from 25 countries and regions and has grown to more than 358,000 competitors representing 183 countries and regions in 2011. The Imagine Cup Worldwide finals have been held all over the globe. The Imagine Cup 2014 Worldwide Finals were held in Seattle, USA.^[1]

• 2003: Barcelona, Spain - Theme: Link between people, information, systems, and devices, using Web services and.NET as the springboard.
• 2004: São Paulo, Brazil - Theme: Imagine a world where smart technology makes everyday life easier.
• 2005: Yokohama, Japan - Theme: Imagine a world where technology dissolves the boundaries between us.
• 2006: Agra & Delhi, India - Theme: Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives.
• 2007: Seoul, South Korea - Theme: Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all.
• 2008: Paris, France - Theme: Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.
• 2009: Cairo, Egypt - Theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world's toughest problems.
• 2010: Warsaw, Poland - Theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world's toughest problems.
• 2011: New York, United States - Theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world's toughest problems.
• 2012: Sydney, Australia - Theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world's toughest problems.
• 2013: St. Petersburg, Russia - Theme: All dreams are now welcome.
• 2014: Seattle, United States
• 2015: Seattle, United States

Competition structure

A team of competitors from Portugal - Imagine Cup Poland, 2010

All Imagine Cup competitors create projects that address the Imagine Cup theme: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.” Imagine Cup 2011 consists of five competitions, including: Software Design, Game Design, Embedded Development, Digital Media and Windows Phone 7. In addition, participants may also compete in four challenges, including: Orchard, IT, and Interoperability and Windows 7 Touch.

Competitions:

• Software Design: The Software Design competition challenges students to use technology to solve what they consider to be the toughest problems facing the world today. Using Microsoft tools and technology, competitors create software applications. Students develop, test, and build their ideas into applications that can change the world.^[3]
• Embedded Development: The Embedded Development competition allows students to go beyond the desktop to build a complete hardware and software solution that addresses global societal problems.^[4]
• Game Design: The Game Design Competition challenges students to create a new game that illustrates the Imagine Cup theme.^[5]
• Digital Media: In the Digital Media competition, teams create web video submissions that address the Imagine Cup theme.^[6]
• Windows Phone 7: The Windows Phone 7 competition challenges students to create applications for Windows Phone 7 that address the Imagine Cup theme.^[7]

Challenges:

• IT: The object of the IT Challenge is to highlight the art and science of developing, deploying, and maintaining IT systems that are efficient, functional, robust and secure.^[8]
• Interoperability: The Interoperability Challenge is designed to recognize the software application that best leverages out-of-the-box Microsoft technologies and blends them with other technologies to connect people, data, or diverse systems in a new way.^[9]
• Orchard: The Orchard Challenge tasks students with creating applications that can be used online, such as a shopping cart and checkout system, video gallery or maps and geolocation services.^[9]
• Windows 7 Touch: The Windows 7 Touch Challenge tasks students with leveraging Windows 7 Touch technology to help people use their computer in a more natural, accessible, and interactive way.^[10]

Criticism

The Microsoft Corporation has been criticized for including provisions in the competition's legal documents, stating that by accepting their prizes, winners agree to allow Microsoft to use concepts, techniques, ideas or solutions from the winning applications "for any purpose." Also, the competition has been criticized for being rather Microsoft-centric, with demands such as "the entry must be designed on.NET Framework 2.0 using Microsoft Visual Studio" or "30% of the scoring in this round will be based on use of showcasing the.NET framework".^[11]

Microsoft's Rules and Regulations,^[12] however, contains a section stating that students' intellectual property will be respected, and that neither Imagine Cup competition nor Microsoft claim ownership of the materials provided by the competitors. It is important to highlight that for the sake of the judgment, internal elements of the solution might be made public to the judges.

Winners

There are a number of competitions and challenges within the Imagine Cup. The Software Design category is the primary competition in which its winners take home the Imagine Cup trophy.

World Citizenship Competition

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2013 [13]	For a Better World	Omni-Hearing Solution	Foodbank Local
2014 [14]	Eyenaemia	SMART Crew	Access Earth Matthew McCann Jack Gallagher KC Grant Donal McClean
2015 [15]	Virtual Dementia Experience	Mozter	Prognosis

Innovation Competition

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2013[16]	soundSYNK Robert Parker Alex Bochenski Jonathan Neumann Edward Moel	Dora	SkyPACS
2014[14]	Estimeet Hayden Do Jason Wei Chris Duan Derek Zhu	Tep	ButterFly
2015 [15]	eFitFashion	NoObs Team	Siymb

Software Design

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2004	Team EPITA[17] Aymeric Gaurat Apelli Francois Beaussier Guillaume Belmas Vincent Vergonjeanne	Team Inspiration[17] Stanislav Vonog Nikolay Surin Konstantin Zhereb Taras Kushko	Team SmartEyes[17] Eleni Korkontzila Dimitrios Bisias Styliani Taplidou Nikolaos Trichakis
2005	Team OmniMusic[18] Stanislav Vonog Nikolay Surin Alexander Popov Ruslan Gilfanov
2006	Team Even.ctor Giorgio Sardo Massimo Paternoster Silvia Perrone Andrea Sossich	Team Trivial Carlos Rodrigues Ivan Cardim Madson Menezes
2007	Team 3KC Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin Jatupon Sukkasem Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn
2008[19]	Team SOAK[20] David Burela Edward Hooper Dimaz Pramudnya Long Zheng	Team Housekeepers Dusan Zelenik Jakub Simko Michal Kompan Marian Honsch
2009	Team Sytech Adrian Buzgar Calin Juravle Andreas Resios	Team VitalLab Maxim Bovykin Sergey Fedorov Denis Gnatyuk Alexey Klishin
2010[21]	Team Skeek Krithee Sirisith Pichai Sodsai Thanasunn Dilokpinitnun Nonthawat Srichad	Team TFZR Zlatibor Veljković Milan Kojadinović Goran Nikolić Vanja Zavišin	Team OneBeep Vinny Lohan Steve Ward Kayo Lakadia Chanyeol Yoo
2011[22]	Team Hermes James McNamara Calum Cawley Matthew Padden Aine Conaghan	Team Note-Taker Qian Yan Shashank Srinivas David Hayden Michael Astrauskas	Team OaSys Yousef Wadi Mohammad Azzam Monir Abu Hilal Hani Abu Huwaij
2012[23]	Team quadSquad Stepanov Anton Posternikov Anton Osika Maxim Jasakov Valery

Embedded Development Competition

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2007	Team TriventDreams ED Andre Furtado Carlos Rodrigues Ivan Cardim Roberto Sonnino
2008	Team Trail Blazers	Team AcidRain Team Wings	Team Aero@PUT
2009	Team Wafree	Team iSee
2010 [21]	Team SmarterME	Team MCPU	Team GERAS
2011 [22]	NTHUCS	Harmonicare	Endeavour_Design

Game Design

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2008	Team Mother Gaia Studio Rafael Costa Guilhermr Campos Helena Van Kampen Tulio Marques Soria	Drunk Puppy Productions Kenny Deriemaeker Timothy Vanherberghen Filip Van Bouwel Jeroen Van Raevels	GomZ Dong HoonKim KiHwan Kim Min My Park
2009	Team LEVV It Luciano José Edgar Neto Vinícius Ottoni Victor Rafael	Epsylon Games	Sanguine Labs
2010 [21]	Team By Implication	NomNom Productions	Green Gears Studio
2011 Mobile[22]	Geekologic	Close World Mobile	Team Dragon Pierre Elias Eric Lee Veronica Burkel Chase Sandmann
2011 Web[22]	Cellardoor	Signum Fidei Thomas Tiam-Lee Jenina Chua Jeriah Miranda Keven Hernandez	Quegee Team
2011 Windows/Xbox[22]	Signum Games	JubJub[24]	WickedTeam
2012 Windows/Xbox[25]	TANG Thai[26]
2014[14]	Brainy Studio	BOMON	Illogic
2015 [15]	IzHard	Kuality Games	Thief

IT Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2008 [19]	Jean-Benoit Paux	Cosmin Ilie	Yan Liu
2009	Cosmin Ilie
2010[21]	WeiQiu Wen	Miklos Cari Sivila	zxc1984
2011 [22]	Jean-Sébastien Duchêne	Błażej Matuszyk	Yunheng Mong

Office Designer

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2005[27]	Team Solvent-OD Andre Furtado Adeline Silva Madson Menezes Raony Araujo	Team FIBRA Sergey Dubovi Pavel Zadumkin Dmitry Kozlov Anastasiya Filinova	Team Paladin Liu Teifeng Yang Yongzhi He Cong Yang Lizhen

Digital Media

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2010[21]	Mirror Vita	Dreaming Spirits	Woolgathering
2011 [22]	M.N.A.	Brothers Forever	CottonCandy

Windows Phone

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [22]	HOMERUN	Zipi Zigi	Lifelens Tristan Gibeau Cy Khormaee Wilson To Jason Wakizaka

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2012 [23]	Vivid Nour El-Dien Hussein Muhammad El-Orabi Kariem El-Shazly	The Stack Karol Stosik	Aaltovation Apurva Jaiswal Irena Prochkova Gitanjali Sachdeva Maimuna Syed

Windows 7 Touch Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [22]	Team India Rose Anthony Froissant José Martins	_dreambender_	IUVO

Interoperability Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2008	SKAN [28] Sameet Singh Khajuria Karun AB Amith George Noel Sequeira	Ecologix [29][30] Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Eduardo Sonnino Renato Ferreira Roberto Sonnino	Together [31] Dariusz Walczak Marcin Wrzos Piotr Sikora Tomasz Nowak
2011 [22]	Team Alaniarides Giorgos Karakatsiotis Vangos Pterneas	Bells Team Daniel Ferreira Lucas Mello Amirton Chagas Joao Paulo dos Santos Oliveira	DemosceneSpirit Lukasz Michniewicz Szymon Majewski Marek Banaszak Magdalena Dudarska

Facebook Creativity Award

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	ij Developers
2013 [13]	Team Ayni

AppCampus Award

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	Tep Brainy Studio

Skype Award

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	Drive Social Impact Eyenaemia Learning and Education Code Buzzers Innovate and Collaborate Super Sea Dragons

Visual Studio Online Boost

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	Genesis LeapKin Tutus flipped.uy RELOAD Learn n' Earn BiDE Code AfriGal Tech Flow

Apps For Office Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	iGeek CodeBlue

Windows & Windows Phone Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	Pomato Apps

User Experience Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	World Citizenship Team HCI/d Games Team Silicon Innovation Hiraya Gabriel Eric Villanueva Jomarie Anne Marquez Neo John Tuquero

Pitch Video Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	World Citizenship Team Symbiote Games Team Sticky Bits Innovation Team Mote Labs
2015 [15]	World Citizenship Rapid Response

Project Blueprint Challenge

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2014 [14]	World Citizenship Team Life Up Games Liaison Team Innovation YouBeRu

Innovation Accelerator

The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator was a program that, between 2006 and 2008, provided Imagine Cup Software Design teams with direction on the next stage of developing their innovative ideas into a business. Each year, between 2006–2008, six teams were selected for the Innovation Accelerator program. Participants in the Innovation Accelerator program travelled to the Microsoft Mountain View campus in Silicon Valley and received technical support and business coaching to create the must-have technology and communications applications of the future. In 2010, Microsoft began inviting every Imagine Cup team to participate in its new program for startups: Microsoft BizSpark.^[32] With this program, startups receive access to current, full-featured software development tools and platforms.^[33]

Previous teams include:

• 2006: Brazil, China, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Norway, India
• 2007: Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Thailand,
• 2008: Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, South Africa,

Imagine Cup Grant

A three-year, $3 million competitive grant program was established by Microsoft in 2011 to support a select number of winning teams’ solutions to go to market and realize its potential to solve a critical global problem. The inaugural grant recipients were announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 27, 2012 which included the following teams:

• Team Lifelens from the United States
• Team Apptenders from Croatia
• Team Falcon Dev from Ecuador
• Team OaSys from Jordan

The grant packages include US$75,000 for each team, as well as software, cloud computing services, solution provider support, premium Microsoft BizSpark account benefits and access to local resources such as the Microsoft Innovation Centers. Microsoft will also connect grant recipients with its network of investors, nongovernmental organization partners and business partners.

Student recognition

Imagine Cup participants from around the world who won their regional competitions in 2010 have been recognized by their government leaders.^[34] In October 2010, two Imagine Cup 2010 United States finalists (Wilson To ^[35] from the Mobilifeteam and Christian Hood from BeastWare) were invited to participate in the White House Science Fair. New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Hon. John Key sent Team OneBeep from New Zealand a personal letter that congratulated them on their third-place finish. Team Skeek from Thailand, winners of the 2010 Software Design competition, met Dr. Khunying Kalaya Sophonpanich, a member of Parliament and Secretary General of The Rajapruek Institute Foundation. Microsoft Poland and members of the European Parliament hosted the “Pushing the Boundaries of Innovation” conference in Brussels. Imagine Cup teams from Poland (fteams and Mutants), Serbia (TFZR), Germany (Mediator), and Belgium (Nom Nom Productions) were in attendance. Greek Imagine Cup winners, Giorgos Karakatsiotis and Vangos Pterneas, of Megadodo, met with the Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, and demonstrated their project that creates personalized descriptions of museum exhibits based on the user's needs. Teams Xormis and Educ8 from Jamaica were honored with a special luncheon hosted by the Government of Jamaica that included an address from Hon. Bruce Golding, the prime minister. Team Think Green had the opportunity to meet with Ivo Josipović, President of Croatia.^[36]

See also

• Imagine Cup Sri Lanka Page

References

1. "Welcome to Imagine Cup 2015!". 2014-09-02.
2. "Imagine Cup official site". Imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
3. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
4. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
5. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
6. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
7. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
8. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
9. Imagine Cup (2010-10-29). "Imagine Cup Blog".
10. Imagine Cup (2010-12-01). "Imagine Cup Blog".
11. Kevin Shockey (2005-11-30). "Stark criticism of Microsoft's Imagine Cup - O'Reilly ONLamp Blog". Oreillynet.com. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
12. "Imagine Cup 2011 Official Rules". Imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
13. "Imagine Cup 2013 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
14. "Imagine Cup 2014 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
15. "Imagine Cup 2015 Winners publisher=www.imaginecup.com". Retrieved 2015-10-01.
16. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
17. Imagine Cup (2010-12-01). "Microsoft Presspass".
18. Imagine Cup (2005-08-01). "Microsoft Awards Student Technology Rock Stars at Imagine Cup 2005".
19. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
20. Brett Winterford (2008-07-09). "ZDNet.com".
21. Justin Robinson (2010-07-09). "Atomic.edu".
22. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
23. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
24. Microsoft Thailand. "Imagine Cup Thailand".
25. "Imagine Cup 2012 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
26. The Nation Newspaper. "Imagine Cup Thailand".
27. "Press Release".
28. "Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners". Microsoft.com. 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
29. "Interoperability Achievement Award Winners". Microsoft.com. 2008-12-11. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009.
30. "Imagine Cup 2008 Year Book" (PDF). Microsoft.
31. "Centrum Prasowe Microsoft". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
32. Chuck Lawton (2010-07-26). "Wired.com".
33. BizSpark (2010-07-26). "BizSpark".
34. Microsoft (2010-10-27). "Microsoft on the Issues Blog".
35. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wilson-to/educate-to-innovate-white_b_768829.html
36. Microsoft (2010-10-04). "Imagine Cup Croatia".

External links

• Official website
• Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom
• Imagine Cup blog
• Malaysia's Imagine Cup website
• India's Imagine Cup website