Student developers' chance to win $125,000 of prizes

Microsoft has announced the start of its fourth annual international student competition, the Imagine Cup (www.imaginecup.co.uk).

The competition is designed to provide an outlet for students to explore technological and artistic interests outside the classroom and more than 15,000 students from over 90 countries competed in last year’s competition.  On offer is a chance to win a share of the $125,000 total prize fund and the chance to kick-start a career in a wide range of sectors, including software design.

Delhi , India wil be the venue for the global final during August 2006 and the overarching theme for this year’s competition is “Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives.” 

The six different invitationals or categories that comprise this year’s competition are: Software Design, Algorithm; Information Technology (IT); Short Film; Interface Design; Project Hoshimi – Programming Battle.

The Software Design Challenge (SDC) is the lead invitational for the competition and unlike other categories is a team event (2-4 students), with each team competing with the support of an academic mentor.  UK entrants in the Software Design invitational will first compete in a local qualifying round to determine who will represent the UK at the worldwide finals, the deadline for submissions in this round is March 1^st 2006.

Following the UK Final, Microsoft UK will build a Personal Project Development Plan to enable them to work closely with the winning national team ahead of the world-wide event.

UK prizes for Software Design Challenge and local Leader Board student winners include, among other things, Xbox 360™, Creative Zens, Digital Cameras, training vouchers and the Academic mentor in the top winning teams receive funding for teaching and research.  The global student winners will receive $25,000 prize money. 

Students wanting to represent their country and compete in this year’s Imagine Cup for an all expenses paid trip to the Delhi finals – and the chance to be crowned World Wide champions are urged to visit the Imagine Cup website at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/academia/imaginecup/2006/default.asp.

Each submitted Software Design Challenge application must:

• Be a self created Web service
• Be designed on .NET Framework 2.0
• Make use of Visual Studio family (Express, Standard or Team System) for development
• Demonstrate innovation using the Microsoft .NET platform
• Teams need to be of 2 to 4 individuals aged 18 or over, together with a nominated Academic Mentor
• Each application must address this year's theme: "Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives"