The world’s premier student technology competition, Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, kicked off its finals on, July 6th in Sydney Australia with more than 350 young technologists from 75 countries and regions. This year marked the event’s 10th year bringing together students from
around the world to step up to the challenge of leading global change and attempt to solve some of the world’s most challenging issues – hunger, the environment, disease, infant mortality, energy, and more!
It was exciting to learn that just under half of this year’s student projects (45%) harnessed the power of the cloud and used Windows Azure in their technology prototypes!
Winners of all competitions were announced this morning via a press release, which can be found on the Imagine Cup virtual press kit, along with images, recent news and a feature story.
As for the Windows Azure Challenge, we are thrilled to announce and congratulate Team Virtual Dreams Azure from Brazil for taking home the win with their project, Eureka which enables teachers to turn lesson plans into interactive content for students’ phones, PCs and tablets.
The Team Virtual Dreams Azure is devised of just two brothers, Roberto and Eduardo Sonnino, and this isn’t their first time to the Imagine Cup, or the finals, for that matter. Between the two brothers, they have been to the Imagine Cup finals a collective, eight times!
They are the perfect entrepreneurial pair – Roberto loves coding while his brother gravitates more toward design and user interface. The two have dedicated most of their life to the Imagine Cup, and have learned invaluable skills and lessons, and clearly have formed a bright future. “We started when Roberto was in his last year of high school and I was in my first year. We’ve pretty much grown up with Imagine Cup in our lives,” Eduardo says. “We’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned to manage projects, we’ve learned to develop in short time constraints and deal with really short deadlines, we’ve worked with the newest technology that hasn’t been released yet, and we’ve managed bugs.”
The Sonninio brothers will receive $8,000 USD for their win! The second and third prize winners also receive prizes: Second place is $4,000 USD, and third place is $3,000 USD. Below is background on the Windows Azure Challenge runner ups! Congratulations to all!!!
Second Place:
- Team Name: Team Complex
- Country: Romania:
- School: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
- Project: Seedbit is a Web application stored in the cloud that unites individuals, companies and NGOs in a fun, social way to get them involved in social causes they are passionate about.
Third Place:
- Team Name: Klein Team
- Country: Algeria
- School: The Higher School of Computer Science, Chlef University, IGEE Mohammed Bouguerra, Hassiba Ben Bouali – Chlef University
- Project: DiaLife is a healthcare platform that helps make diabetic patients and their families’ lives easier and simpler by combining the elements of diabetes management into a software solution.