Bukola Olatunji
5 July 2009
Cairo — The global finals of the world's largest technology competition, Imagine Cup 2009, began yesterday in Cairo, Egypt with 444 students from 124 countries and regions, including Nigeria. At stake is $288, 000 in prize money and the chance to kick-start their careers in one of several technological fields.
Now in its seventh year, Imagine Cup is an annual Microsoft Corporation competition that challenges students around the world to use their creative genius to build technology solutions that can help address some of the world's toughest challenges. The theme for this year's contest is: 'Imagine a world where technology helps to solve the toughest problems facing us today'.
The focus is on using technology to help address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which encompass some of the most difficult issues facing the world, ranging from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDs, to providing universal primary education.
Student teams compete across nine categories, including, Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, IT Challenge, Robotics and Algorithm, MashUp, Photography, Shorty Film and Design. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 7, as part of the Imagine Cup World Festival closing ceremonies with the pyramids at Giza as the backdrop.
In addition to the nine main categories, there are several achievement awards this year, including the Interoperability Award, Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award, Accessibility Award, Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award, Parallel Computing Award, Tablet Accessibility Award and the Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award, sponsored by the first lady of Egypt, through the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI).
No fewer than 300, 000 students from 100 countries registered for the competition locally, regionally and online in the last one year. National champions and Computer Science students of the University of Lagos, who go by the name 'TeamX': Opeyemi Francis Akinnawo, John Bello and Celestine Ezeokoye, accompanied by one of their Lecturers, Dr. Ebunoluwa Fasina; are representing Nigeria in the Software Design category.
Twenty-three- year-old Dein de Vries, a member of 'Team Smile', which emerged as one of the top 12 technology innovators in the world at last year's finals, held in Paris, yesterday shared with journalists how, after the competition, he and his partner, Christopher King started their own company 'whereismytransport.com', to address the problem of transport services in South Africa.
"By providing students with cutting-edge technology and challenging them to address some of our world's most challenging issues, the Microsoft Imagine Cup is tapping an incredible and limitless resource - the passion, creativity and talents of students from around the globe", said Ray Ozzie, Chie Software Architect at Microsoft.
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