Editor’s note – July 8, 2009 – references to Imagine Cup winning teams were updated post-publication.
CAIRO, Egypt — July 7, 2009 — After an intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 300,000 students from more than 100 countries and regions, Microsoft Corp. announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2009. Celebrating first place, Romania’s Team SYTECH won the worldwide Software Design invitational, South Korea’s Team Wafree won the Embedded Development invitational and Brazil’s Team LEVV It won the Game Development challenge. Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, empowers students to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today.
Team SYTECH from Romania (at left) took first place in the Software Design competition. Coming in second was Vital Lab, from Russia (center), while Virtual Dreams from Brazil (right) earned third. Looking on is S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division for Microsoft.
“The creativity and imagination that students poured into their projects this year was incredible,” said Joe Wilson, senior director of Academic Initiatives, Developer & Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft. “Many of these projects have the potential to have a serious impact on how we address society’s most pressing issues. We hope that all of the students who participated this year will continue their pursuit of creating technology in the service of making the world a better place.”
The software design, embedded development and game development finalist teams created applications, devices and games using Microsoft technology based on this year’s theme: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.”
A total of 444 students from 149 teams representing 70 countries and regions competed in the Imagine Cup 2009 Worldwide Finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, IT Challenge, Robotics and Algorithm, MashUp, Photography, Short Film and Design. In addition to the main categories of competition, there are several Achievement Awards this year: the Interoperability Award, Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award, Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award, Accessibility Award, Accessible Design Award, Parallel Computing Award, Tablet Accessibility Award, Live Services Award, Windows Mobile Award, and the H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award, sponsored by the first lady of Egypt through the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI).
The winners were announced in a gala awards ceremony this evening at the base of Egypt’s historic pyramids as part of the Imagine Cup World Festival, a celebration drawing Imagine Cup competitors, mentors and other key attendees from around the world. The following are the top three finalists by invitational in finishing order:
Among the enthusiastic winning teams was LEVV It from Brazil, here waving to the crowd after being given their award for first place in the Game Development division. At left is S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division for Microsoft.
First Place: Romania — SYTECH
Second Place: Russia — Vital Lab
Third Place: Brazil — Virtual Dreams
First Place: South Korea — Wafree
Second Place: China — iSee
Third Place: Ukraine — Intellectronics
First Place: Brazil — LEVV It
Second Place: United States — Epsylon Games
Third Place: United Kingdom — Sanquine Labs
Robotics and Algorithm
First Place: Czech Republic — Lukáš Perůtka
Second Place: Canada — Byron Knoll
Third Place: China — Lin Fuming
Team Wafree from South Korea won the top award in the Embedded Development competition.
First Place: Romania — Cosmin Ilie
Second Place: China — Wu Chang
Third Place: Bolivia — Miklos Cari Sivila
First Place: United States — CURIOUS
Second Place (tie): Poland – Monastery of Innovations
Second Place (tie): Singapore – PlanetKY
First Place: Croatia —Voodoo Delirium
Second Place: Singapore — Woolgathering
Third Place: Japan — Terada
First Place: United Kingdom — Fulham Four
Second Place: India — ChennaiCoolers
Third Place: Ukraine — Just4Fun
First Place: Brazil — Willburn
Second Place: United States — eXchangeFun
Third Place: France — Paindepices
In addition to the category awards, 10 Achievement Awards were presented.
Interoperability Award. The Interoperability Award 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. This award was won by:
First Place: Brazil — Proativa Team
Second Place: Poland — Fteams
Third Place: Jordan — ECRAM
Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award. This award challenges students to create a software solution that can be accessed from a basic mobile phone and designed to meet the needs of end users who earn less than $8 (U.S.) a day. This award was won by:
First Place: Malaysia — COSMIC
Second Place: China — Unique Studio
Third Place: Malaysia — Capricorn
Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award. This award encourages students to unlock new ways for the PC to help address universal education goals. This award was won by:
Accessibility Award. Students are challenged to design a technology solution that leverages people’s diverse physical and cognitive abilities. This award was won by:
Accessible Design Award: Students who participated in the Design competition were awarded additional recognition for a technology solution that best addressed accessibility needs. This award was won by:
Parallel Computing Award. Parallel applications can open a door to the future, and this award challenges students to use parallel technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:
Tablet Accessibility Award. The objective of the Tablet Accessibility Award is to create a new education application that uses Tablet technology while expanding the possibilities for how a user interacts with the computer. This award was won by:
Live Services Award: This award challenges students to create a technology solution built on Microsoft’s Azure Services Platform to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:
Windows Mobile Award: This award challenges students to use Windows Mobile technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:
First Place (tie): Croatia – Team Explorer
First Place (tie): Indonesia – Big Bang
First Place (tie): Brazil – Virtual Dreams
H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award. Sponsored by the first lady of Egypt, this award was given to the project that best intersects the following: the Imagine Cup 2009 theme, “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”; the Millennium Development Goals; and the objectives of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement and the Cyber Peace Initiative. This award was won by:
First Place: Poland — kAMUflage
Second Place: Egypt — Big Buddy
Third Place: France — WikiChildProtect
Next year’s Imagine Cup 2010 Worldwide Finals will take place in Poland, a country with a track record of producing highly skilled IT students as well as successful Imagine Cup entrants. Registrations for Imagine Cup 2010 open tomorrow, July 8, 2009. More information about Imagine Cup can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.
Imagine Cup Sponsors
The Imagine Cup is being supported by a range of partner organizations including Paramount Digital Entertainment, Mesh Services & Live Framework, Microsoft Accessibility Business Unit, Microsoft Education Product Group, Microsoft Interoperability, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Parallel Computing Platform, Microsoft Research External Research, Microsoft Robotics, Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group, Windows Embedded Business, Windows Mobile and Microsoft XNA Game Platform Group.
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