What Is Imagine Cup?
The Imagine Cup was founded in 2003. So this year marks the 13th year of Imagine Cup. At the first Imagine Cup in 2003 we had just 2,000 students from 25 countries enter but over the past 13 years the Imagine Cup had grown from strength to strength. To date, over 1.8 million students from more than 190 countries have engaged with the Imagine Cup program
Microsoft Imagine Cup is the company’s premier student technology program and competition, and a cornerstone of the Microsoft YouthSpark initiative. It provides an opportunity for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to collaborate, develop a technology application, create a business plan and gain a keen understanding of what is needed to bring a concept to market. Through Imagine Cup, the brightest young minds join together to exemplify the power of student innovation.
How Does Imagine Cup Work?
Students compete in teams of up to four people in the Games, Innovation or World Citizenship categories to create an original technology project from start to finish – create an idea, make a plan, build the project and compete.
Students advance through various rounds of the competition either online or through in-person National Final events organized by Microsoft subsidiaries in countries across the globe. The three categorical first place teams from each participating country are entered into the World Semifinals online, and it is here where the World Finalists teams are determined. Winners are awarded travel to the Imagine Cup World Finals, where they compete for cash prizes, and once in a lifetime experiences. The Imagine Cup World Finals are in Seattle, Washington, USA, July 27- July 31, 2015.
World Wide FInal Locations
2003: Barcelona, Spain | 2006: Delhi, India | 2009: Cairo, Egypt | 2012: Sydney, Australia | |||||
2004: Sao Paulo, Brazil | 2007: Seoul, South Korea | 2010: Warsaw, Poland | 2013: St. Petersburg, Russia | |||||
2005: Yokohama, Japan | 2008: Paris, France | 2011: New York, NY, USA | 2014: Seattle, WA, USA | |||||
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The three 2015 competition categories are designed to inspire students to use their imagination and passion to create technology solutions on the Microsoft platform.
· Games: Today, great games come from anywhere and people play them everywhere - on their phones, on their computers, on their tablets, in their browser, with their friends, with anyone, with everyone.
GAMES | ||||
Country | Team Name | Project Name | Description | Technology Overview |
China | Thief | Lost Shadow | Lost Shadow is a 3D puzzle game using a creative gameplay called Shadow Path. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine |
South Korea | JY6 | Lynn: A Girl Into Puzzles | Lynn: A girl into puzzles is a 2d puzzle game where you control the puzzle instead of the character. | Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine |
Malaysia | SwinDesign | Tou: The Sacrifice | Tou: The Sacrifice is an immersive horror exploration mobile game that tells a story inspired by local Melanau folklore, culture and rituals. | Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Unity Game Engine, Facebook API, Twitter API |
Nepal | Octavian | DYD | DYD is a 3D first person game which focuses on stopping the poaching of endangered animals. | Windows 8, Unreal Game Engine |
Netherlands | Kuality Games | Bounce 'em up | Bounce 'em Up is a physics-based, over-the-top, competitive multiplayer action game. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine, Any Open Source Library |
Poland | Serious English Name | Bandbarian | Bandbarian uses the Microsoft Band to monitor the users exercise which gets transferred to their game character's experience | Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine |
Russia | IzHard | OVIVO | OVIVO is a 2D platform puzzle game with an innovative twist, as the OVIVO world is always evolving and developing. The game world is divided on black and white spaces, and each have different gravity directions. The character has an ability to transit from one color zone to another, to overcome obstacles. The player’s goal is to solve game puzzles, based on duality of the game world, and find a symbol on every level that opens the next part of the story. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Xbox Indie Games, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine |
South Africa | Digital Interactive Games | PYA | PYA Maze of Gods is a 3D Labyrinth style game built to challenge the user's problem solving skills, reaction time and their ability to overcome the obstacles that they will encounter. | Windows 8, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine |
Tunisia | T2 | Back in Time | Back in Time is a 3D game developed using Unity engine for play on two screens, a laptop and a mobile phone. The game consists of making the parent and the kid compete with each other in a funny and thrilling way using a mobile phone and a Microsoft Band. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine, Microsoft Band |
· Innovation: Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students. Social networks, music services, digital photography apps, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. Imagine Cup is looking for the next big thing in this category.
INNOVATION | ||||
Country | Team Name | Project Name | Description | Technology Overview |
Azerbaijan | NoObs Team | Spinal | Spinal aims at helping people to control their posture, preventing consequences of wrong spinal position while they are sitting, walking, working and more. | Windows Phone 8 |
Brazil | eFitFashion | Clothes For Me | Clothes For Me is a marketplace for custom tailored clothes based on a person's unique body size and shape. | Microsoft Azure, Any Open Source Library |
Canada | Walkly | Walkly | Walkly is a mobile phone application that combines the power of social media and smartphone technology to empower users to feel more comfortable in the streets. | Windows Phone 8, Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Facebook API |
France | Stimulus | Stimulus | Stimulus is a universal and modular low-cost hardware movement simulator designed for the home. | Visual Studio, Unity Game Engine, Any Open Source Library |
Hungary | Mistory | Mistory | Mistory is a story-based, interactive city tour mobile application. Users can play a Story and explore a city by utilizing the environment. | Windows Phone 8, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Facebook API |
India | Eyeluminati | Manovue | Manovue is the world's first intelligent personal assisting device for the blind. It is a multi-utility wearable haptic device which enables the user to read any printed text and helps them move around freely by providing haptic feedback. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Microsoft Cortana, OneNote |
Japan | ScreenAIR | Screen Feels AIR | ScreenAIR is an innovative sensor that can detect wind movements and convert them to computer input. | Windows 8, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library |
New Zealand | Tether | Tether | Tether is a platform that lets you discover the talent in your social network. Whether it be make-up or repairs or photography, finding trustworthy and passionate people close to you for a casual job can be done instantly. | Windows Phone 8, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Facebook API, Skype API |
Pakistan | Tesseract | Dispatch | Dispatch is an Azure cloud based application which finds the most optimal meetup time for friends and businesses, eliminating human interaction when deciding meeting times. | Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library |
Palestinian Authority | BCR | Brain Controlled Robot | BCR enables people with mobility challenges to operate helpful robots using just their thoughts. | Visual Studio |
United Kingdom | Siymb | Siymb | Siymb uses an inexpensive wearable to transform the way people interact with each other during conferences and exhibitions. With a simple handshake, participants will be able to exchange details about each other. | Windows 8, Microsoft Azure, Any Open Source Library, Facebook API |
United States | StudyTree | StudyTree | StudyTree is a mobile application that connects student and tutors within a university for in-person tutoring. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio |
· World Citizenship: Students are encouraged to find a problem in the world, even in their own lives or community, that affects many people, and then work to solve it.By creating impressive new technology projects in fields such as health, education, and the environment, these students have shown the world new ways to think and to change lives.
WORLD CITIZENSHIP | ||||
Country | Team Name | Project Name | Description | Technology Overview |
Australia | Virtual Dementia Experience | ADVDE | The Virtual Dementia Experience (VDE) simulates the effects of aging and dementia in a virtual environment, so that cognitively intact people can gain an appreciation of the issues confronting others with dementia. The VDE completely occupies the senses of users, immersing them in the world of a person with dementia. | Windows 8, Kinect for Windows SDK, Visual Studio, Unreal Game Engine |
Cyprus | S.E.C.S. | S.E.C.S. | S.E.C.S. is a full hardware and software solution for controlling crop cultivation remotely and in real time. | Windows Phone 8, Windows Server, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library |
Germany | enCourage | enCourage | enCourage anonymously broadcasts signals for help, immediately informs everyone in the local area about nearby emergency situations, and helps users coordinate and work towards deescalating the situation at hand. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio, Xamarin |
Greece | PROGNOSIS | Prognosis | Unobtrusive behavioral analysis to capture early Parkinson's Disease symptoms. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Skype API |
Indonesia | Alix | Solidare | Solidare Apps quickly connects its donors with orphaned children across the globe to help improve their lives and ensure they don't drop out of school. | Windows 8 Phone App, Microsoft Azure |
Italy | #idontgiveanapp | HeartWatch | HeartWatch uses a Microsoft Band to detect cardiac arrhythmias. It can even notify friends and family in case of serious cardiac issues. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows Phone 8, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library, Microsoft Band SDK |
Mexico | S-CoolSoft | Play S-Cool | Play S-Cool wants to help students of elementary school to learn in a better way and reduce child obesity, through physical activities in their classrooms with the use of Kinect to answer activities with questions of multiple answers created by their teachers. | Windows 8 Store App, Kinect for Windows SDK, .NET Framework, Visual Studio, MonoGame, Facebook API |
Nigeria | LifeWatch | AsthmaVisor | AsthmaVisor is a solution geared towards a more cost-effective and efficient way of supervising asthmatic patients. | Windows 8 Store App, Windows 8, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio |
Romania | EpSyDet | EpSyDet | EpSyDet is a phone application that will detect epileptic seizures via a smartwatch and notify a caretaker. | Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio |
Singapore | Mozter | Mozter | Mozter is a mosquito monitoring platform that leverages the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based technologies to assist mosquito control officers with national mosquito surveillance and control programmes. | Windows Phone 8, Windows Server, Windows ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library |
Taiwan | Boby | Boby | Boby is an easy and unobtrusive way for couples to monitor Basal Temperature to help with pregnancy planning. | Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio, Any Open Source Library |
United Arab Emirates | Freedom Fragrance | VioLens | VioLens offers a doorway to security where victims and bystanders can confidentially report instances of abuse. The anonymity of the reporting empowers the community to do the right thing without the fear of being attacked by the abusers and empower the victim to speak up. | Bing/Bing Maps, Visual Studio, Windows Phone 8.1 SDK , Microsoft Cortana |
Three first place winning teams move on to the Championship Round where one team will be crowned the Imagine Cup World Champion and have the opportunity to meet with Satya Nadella.
Software Development Lifecycle Challenges
Throughout this year’s program, students had the opportunity to participate in Challenges that align with the Software Development Lifecycle in the hopes to expand experience and coaching opportunities from judges for teams, allowing students to think beyond the competition to where and how they could one day bring their idea to market. These three challenges were set up for students to evolve their projects leading up to the Imagine Cup World Finals.
· Pitch Video Challenge: In this challenge, students are asked to create a five minute video pitch of their project idea. No prototypes or examples yet, this focuses solely on the craft of developing and selling their idea.
· Project Blueprint Challenge: In this challenge, students deliver a project proposal articulating the users, requirements, scenarios and business model for the team’s project.
· User Experience Challenge: In this final challenge, students are asked to demonstrate the user experience, sharing user flow, wireframes and a visual target for how the software will display on screen.
Who will win the Imagine Cup World Championship?
Tune in on Friday, July 31 @ 12pm PT & watch the LIVE webcast!