Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners

Students address environmental sustainability with innovative technology;
torch passes to Egypt for Imagine Cup 2009.

PARIS, July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced
the winners of Imagine Cup 2008 at the Musee 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.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
"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
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 and
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: Carlos Junquera Cachero, David Rodriguez, Hector 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, 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 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.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

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