Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together student developers worldwide to help resolve some of the world's toughest challenges.[1] It is considered as "Olympics of Technology" by computer science and engineering and is considered one of the top competitions and awards related to technology and software design. 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, with more than 2 million competitors representing 150 countries in 2022. The 2023 Imagine Cup World Championship was held in Seattle, United States.[2][3]

Imagine Cup official logo

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 2 million competitors representing 150 countries in 2022. The Imagine Cup World Championship has been held all over the globe. Since 2014, the Imagine Cup World Championship has been held in Seattle, United States.[2]

  • 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 City, 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
  • 2016: Seattle, United States
  • 2017: Seattle, United States
  • 2018: Seattle, United States
  • 2019: Seattle, United States
  • 2020: Digital event at Microsoft Build in Seattle, United States[4]
  • 2021: Digital event at Microsoft Build in Seattle, United States[5]
  • 2022: Seattle, United States[6]
  • 2023: Seattle, United States[7]
  • 2024: Register to take part

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.”

Competitions
  • Software Design
    The Software Design competition challenges participants 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. Participants develop, test, and build their ideas into applications that can change the world.[8]
  • Game Design
    The Game Design Competition challenges participants to create a new game that illustrates the Imagine Cup theme.[9]

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.

Software Design
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2004 France Team EPITA[10]
Aymeric Gaurat Apelli
Francois Beaussier
Guillaume Belmas
Vincent Vergonjeanne		 Russia Team Inspiration[10]
Ukraine Stanislav Vonog
Russia Nikolay Surin
Ukraine Konstantin Zhereb
Ukraine Taras Kushko		 Greece Team SmartEyes[10]
Eleni Korkontzila
Dimitrios Bisias
Styliani Taplidou
Nikolaos Trichakis
2005 Russia Team OmniMusic[11]
Ukraine Stanislav Vonog
Russia Nikolay Surin
Russia Alexander Popov
Russia Ruslan Gilfanov
2006[12] Italy Team Even.ctor
Giorgio Sardo
Massimo Paternoster
Silvia Perrone
Andrea Sossich		 Brazil Team Trivial
Carlos Rodrigues
Ivan Cardim
Madson Menezes		 NorwayTeam NTNU
Jan-Kristian Markiewicz
Gøran Hansen
Hans Olav Norheim
Jonas Follesø
2007 Thailand Team 3KC
Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong
Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin
Jatupon Sukkasem
Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn		 Korea Team En#605/Project Finger Code
Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong
Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin
Jatupon Sukkasem
Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn		 Jamaica Team ICAD
Imran Allie
Conroy Smith
Ayson Baxter
Damion Mitchel
2008[13] Australia Team SOAK[14]
David Burela
Edward Hooper
Dimaz Pramudnya
Long Zheng		 Slovakia Team Housekeepers
Dusan Zelenik
Jakub Simko
Michal Kompan
Marian Honsch
2009 Romania Team Sytech
Adrian Buzgar
Calin Juravle
Andreas Resios		 Russia Team VitalLab
Maxim Bovykin
Sergey Fedorov
Denis Gnatyuk
Alexey Klishin
2010[15] Thailand Team Skeek
Krithee Sirisith
Pichai Sodsai
Thanasunn Dilokpinitnun
Nonthawat Srichad		 Serbia Team TFZR
Zlatibor Veljković
Milan Kojadinović
Goran Nikolić
Vanja Zavišin		 New Zealand Team OneBeep
Vinny Lohan
Steve Ward
Kayo Lakadia
Chanyeol Yoo
2011[16] Republic of Ireland Team Hermes
James McNamara
Calum Cawley
Matthew Padden
Aine Conaghan		 United States Team Note-Taker
Qian Yan
Shashank Srinivas
David Hayden
Michael Astrauskas		 Jordan Team OaSys
Yousef Wadi
Mohammad Azzam
Monir Abu Hilal
Hani Abu Huwaij
2012[17] Ukraine Team quadSquad
Stepanov Anton
Posternikov Anton
Osika Maxim
Jasakov Valery
2013[18] Portugal Team For a Better World
2014[19] Australia Team Eyenamia
2015[20] Brazil Team EFitFashion
2016[21] Romania Team ENTy
2017[22] Czech Republic Team X.Glu
2018[23] Canada Team SmartArm
2019[24] United States Team EasyGlucose
Bryan Chiang		 India Team Caeli
Bharat Sundal		 United Kingdom Team Finderr[25]
Ferdinand Loesch
Choon Kiat Lee
Sachin Sriskanda

Office Designer
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2005[26] Brazil Team Solvent-OD
Andre Furtado
Adeline Silva
Madson Menezes
Raony Araujo		 Russia Team FIBRA
Sergey Dubovi
Pavel Zadumkin
Dmitry Kozlov
Anastasiya Filinova		 Russia Team Paladin
Liu Teifeng
Yang Yongzhi
He Cong
Yang Lizhen

Embedded Development Competition
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2007 Brazil Team TriventDreams ED

Andre Furtado
Carlos Rodrigues
Ivan Cardim
Roberto Sonnino

2008 Singapore Team Trail Blazers Republic of Ireland Team AcidRain

China Team Wings

 Poland Team Aero@PUT
2009 South Korea Team Wafree China Team iSee
2010 [15] Taiwan Team SmarterME Russia Team MCPU France Team GERAS
2011 [16] Taiwan NTHUCS China Harmonicare Romania Endeavour_Design

Interoperability Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2008 India SKAN [27]
Sameet Singh Khajuria
Karun AB
Amith George
Noel Sequeira		 Brazil Ecologix [28][29]
Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues
Eduardo Sonnino
Renato Ferreira
Roberto Sonnino		 Poland Together [30]
Dariusz Walczak
Marcin Wrzos
Piotr Sikora
Tomasz Nowak
2009 [31] Brazil Proativa Team
Amirton Chagas
Flavio Almeida
Joao Paulo Oliveira Santos
Lucas Mello		 Jordan ECRAM
Mohammed Y. Eshbeata
Laith Dawahir
Wassim Shehadeh		 Poland Fteams
Tomasz Ciejka
Grzegorz Glonek
Jacek Pintera
Krzysztof Szokal-Egird
2010 [32][33] Jamaica Xormis
Shawn Mclean
Derron Brown
Dwayne Samuels
Markel Mairs		 Brazil Uptiva Dreams IT
Hugo Rodrigues
Edmiel Leandro
Daniel Ferreira
Eduardo Sonnino		 Indonesia Chandradimuka
Yudha Antawiryawan
Kania Audrint
Anggunmeka Luhur Prasasti
Widyara Desgita
2011 [16] Greece Team Alaniarides
Giorgos Karakatsiotis
Vangos Pterneas		 Brazil Bells Team
Daniel Ferreira
Lucas Mello
Amirton Chagas
Joao Paulo dos Santos Oliveira		 Poland DemosceneSpirit
Lukasz Michniewicz
Szymon Majewski
Marek Banaszak
Magdalena Dudarska

Game Design
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2008 Brazil Team Mother Gaia Studio

Rafael Costa
Guilhermr Campos
Helena Van Kampen
Tulio Marques Soria

 Belgium Drunk Puppy Productions

Kenny Deriemaeker
Timothy Vanherberghen
Filip Van Bouwel
Jeroen Van Raevels

 Korea GomZ

Dong HoonKim
KiHwan Kim
Min My Park

2009 Brazil Team LEVV It

Luciano José
Edgar Neto
Vinícius Ottoni
Victor Rafael

United States Epsylon Games United Kingdom Sanguine Labs
2010 [15] Philippines Team By Implication Belgium NomNom Productions France Green Gears Studio
2011 Mobile[16] France Geekologic France Close World Mobile United States Team Dragon

Pierre Elias
Eric Lee
Veronica Burkel
Chase Sandmann

2011 Web[16] Poland Cellardoor Philippines Signum Fidei

Thomas Tiam-Lee
Jenina Chua
Jeriah Miranda
Keven Hernandez

 Slovakia Quegee Team
2011 Windows/Xbox[16] Brazil Signum Games Thailand JubJub[34] Czech Republic WickedTeam
2012 Windows/Xbox[35] Thailand TANG Thai[36]
2014[37] Russia Brainy Studio South Korea BOMON Egypt Illogic
2015 [38] Russia IzHard Netherlands Kuality Games China Thief
2016 Thailand PH21

IT Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2005 France Stefan Plizga Romania Emanuel Pentescu Austria Andreas Tomek
2006 Austria Andreas Tomek Romania Valy Greavu France Daniel Boteanu
2007 [39] China Zhifeng Chen France Romain Larmet Romania Ilie Cosmin Viorel
2008 [13] France Jean-Benoit Paux Romania Cosmin Ilie China Yan Liu
2009 Romania Cosmin Ilie China Wu Chang Bolivia Miklos Cari Sivila
2010[15] China WeiQiu Wen Bolivia Miklos Cari Sivila Singapore zxc1984
2011 [16] France Jean-Sébastien Duchêne Poland Błażej Matuszyk Singapore Yunheng Mong

Digital Media
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2010[15] Taiwan Mirror Vita Saudi Arabia Dreaming Spirits Singapore Woolgathering
2011 [16] Romania M.N.A. Oman Brothers Forever Taiwan CottonCandy

Health Awareness Awards
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2012 [40] Italy FifthElement Project

Matteo Valoriani
Antimo Musone
Daniele Midi
Antonio Vecchio

 N/A N/A

Connected Planet Award
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2013 India Y Nots N/A N/A

Microsoft Azure (Cloud)
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2013 Pakistan Y Nots Ukraine nLife China LetssGo

Windows Phone
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2011 [16] South Korea HOMERUN South Korea Zipi Zigi United States Lifelens
Tristan Gibeau
Cy Khormaee
Wilson To
Jason Wakizaka
2012 [17] Egypt Vivid
Noureldien Hussein (Nour El-Dien Hussein)
Muhammad El-Orabi
Kariem El-Shazly		 Poland The Stack
Karol Stosik		 Finland Aaltovation
Apurva Jaiswal
Irena Prochkova
Gitanjali Sachdeva
Maimuna Syed

Windows 7 Touch Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2011 [16] France Team India Rose
Anthony Froissant
José Martins		 Indonesia _dreambender_ Japan IUVO

World Citizenship Competition
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2013 [41] Portugal For a Better World Taiwan Omni-Hearing Solution Australia Foodbank Local
2014 [37] Australia Eyenaemia Taiwan SMART Crew Republic of Ireland Access Earth
Matthew McCann
Jack Gallagher
KC Grant
Donal McClean
2015 [38] Australia Virtual Dementia Experience Singapore Mozter Greece Prognosis
2016 [42] Greece AMANDA Tunisia Night's Watch Hungary InSimu

Innovation Competition
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2013[43] United Kingdom soundSYNK
Robert Parker
Alex Bochenski
Jonathan Neumann
Edward Noel		 Slovenia Dora Thailand SkyPACS
2014[37] New Zealand Estimeet
Hayden Do
Jason Wei
Chris Duan
Derek Zhu
 Hungary Tep Bahrain ButterFly
2015 [38] Brazil eFitFashion Azerbaijan NoObs Team United Kingdom Siymb
2016 [44] Romania ENTy Sri Lanka Bit Masters United States HealthX

Facebook Creativity Award
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] Cyprus ij Developers
2013 [41] Ecuador Team Ayni

AppCampus Award
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] Hungary Tep
Russia Brainy Studio

Skype Award
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] Drive Social Impact
Australia Eyenaemia

Learning and Education
Nepal Code Buzzers
Innovate and Collaborate
South Africa Super Sea Dragons

Visual Studio Online Boost
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] Greece Genesis

Slovakia LeapKin
Germany Tutus
Uruguay flipped.uy
Algeria RELOAD
Lebanon Learn n' Earn
Kenya BiDE Code
Uganda AfriGal Tech
Israel Flow

Apps For Office Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] China iGeek

India CodeBlue

Windows & Windows Phone Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] Venezuela Pomato Apps

User Experience Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] World Citizenship

United States Team HCI/d
Games
United States Team Silicon
Innovation
Philippines Hiraya
Gabriel Eric Villanueva
Jomarie Anne Marquez
Neo John Tuquero

Pitch Video Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] World Citizenship
Republic of Ireland Team Symbiote

Games
Romania Team Sticky Bits
Innovation
United States Team Mote Labs

2015 [38] World Citizenship
Republic of Ireland Rapid Response

Project Blueprint Challenge
Year Gold Silver Bronze
2014 [37] World Citizenship
Brazil Team Life Up

Games
Brazil Liaison Team
Innovation
Denmark 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 and 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.[45] With this program, startups receive access to current, full-featured software development tools and platforms.[46]

Previous teams include:

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.

For the 2012 version of the competition, the following teams were announced in December 2012. The teams are:

  • Team Graphmasters from Germany. The team members are: Christian Brüggemann, Sebastian Heise and Iulian Nitescu.
  • Team StethoCloud from Australia. The team members are: Hon Weng Chong, Andrew Lin, Mahsa Salehi and Karthik Rajah.
  • Team Vivid from Egypt. The team members are: Noureldien Hussein (Nour El-Dien Hussein), Muhammed Mousa El-Orabi and Fady Fawzy Rafla.
  • Team Cipher256 from Uganda The team members are: Aaron Tushabe, Joshua Okello, Dr. Davis Musinguzi, Josiah Kavuma and Joseph Kaizzi.
  • Team QuadSquad from Ukraine. The team members are: Maxim Osika, Valeriy Yasakov, Anton Stepanov, Anton Posternikov and Dmytro Samoilenko.

Recognition

Imagine Cup participants from around the world who won their regional competitions in 2010 have been recognized by their government leaders.[47] In October 2010, two Imagine Cup 2010 United States finalists (Wilson To [48] 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.[49]

See also

References
  1. "Tune in to Imagine Cup July 27 to see which team wins more than $200,000 in prizes - The Official Microsoft Blog". The Official Microsoft Blog. 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  2. "Meet the 2022 Imagine Cup Champion: V Bionic". 2022-06-01.
  3. "Imagine Cup official site". Imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
  4. "Meet the 2020 Imagine Cup World Champion: Team Hollo from Hong Kong SAR!". Imaginecup.com. 19 May 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
  5. "Meet the 2021 Imagine Cup World Champion: Team REWEBA from Kenya!". Imaginecup.com. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  6. "Meet the 2022 Imagine Cup Champion: V Bionic". Imaginecup.com. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  7. "2023 Imagine Cup World Championship Winner Revealed!". Imaginecup.com. 23 May 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  8. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
  9. Imagine Cup (2010-09-01). "Imagine Cup Official Rules".
  10. Imagine Cup (2010-12-01). "Microsoft Presspass". Microsoft.
  11. Imagine Cup (2005-08-01). "Microsoft Awards Student Technology Rock Stars at Imagine Cup 2005". Microsoft.
  12. "Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2006 Winners" (Press release). 2006-08-11.
  13. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 8 July 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  14. Brett Winterford (2008-07-09). "ZDNet.com".
  15. Justin Robinson (2010-07-09). "Atomic.edu".
  16. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 13 July 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  17. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  18. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 11 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  19. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. August 2014. Retrieved 1 Aug 2014.
  20. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 4 Aug 2015.
  21. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  22. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  23. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  24. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 6 May 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  25. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  26. "Press Release". Microsoft.
  27. "Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners". Microsoft.com. 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  28. "Interoperability Achievement Award Winners". Microsoft.com. 2008-12-11. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009.
  29. "Imagine Cup 2008 Year Book" (PDF). Microsoft. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-10. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  30. "Centrum Prasowe Microsoft". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  31. "Egypt 09 Imagine Cup - The World's Premier Student Technology Competition" (PDF). Microsoft.com. 2009-07-07. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  32. Lawton, Chuck (2010-07-09). "Imagine Cup 2010: The Winners!". Wired. Wired.com. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  33. "Imagine Cup 2010 Yearbook". Microsoft.com. 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  34. Microsoft Thailand. "Imagine Cup Thailand". Microsoft.
  35. "Imagine Cup 2012 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  36. The Nation Newspaper. "Imagine Cup Thailand".
  37. "Imagine Cup 2014 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  38. "Imagine Cup 2015 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  39. "Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2007 Winners". Microsoft.
  40. "Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2012 Winners". www.pcmag.com. 11 July 2012. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  41. "Imagine Cup 2013 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  42. "Imagine Cup 2016 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  43. "Press Release". Microsoft News Center. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  44. "Imagine Cup 2015 Winners". www.imaginecup.com. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
  45. Chuck Lawton (2010-07-26). "Wired.com". Wired.
  46. BizSpark (2010-07-26). "BizSpark".
  47. Microsoft (2010-10-27). "Microsoft on the Issues Blog".
  48. "Educate to Innovate: The White House Science Fair Kickoff". HuffPost. 20 October 2010.
  49. Microsoft (2010-10-04). "Imagine Cup Croatia". Microsoft.
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