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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]
The Imagine Cup was first introduced in 2003 as part of Microsoft's initiative to encourage the next generation of technologists and entrepreneurs. Its goal was to empower students to use Microsoft technologies to create impactful projects in fields such as education, health, sustainability, and accessibility.
Over the years, the Imagine Cup has grown in scope and scale, attracting tens of thousands of participants annually. The competition has been shaped by technological trends and global challenges.
The competition is divided into multiple stages:
Throughout its history, the Imagine Cup has spotlighted innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. Some notable milestones include:
The Imagine Cup has become a catalyst for innovation, providing students with resources, mentorship, and exposure to industry leaders. Many participants have gone on to turn their projects into startups, gaining recognition and funding.
All Imagine Cup competitors create projects that address the Imagine Cup theme: "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems."
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.
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | ![]() Aymeric Gaurat Apelli Francois Beaussier Guillaume Belmas Vincent Vergonjeanne | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Eleni Korkontzila Dimitrios Bisias Styliani Taplidou Nikolaos Trichakis |
2005 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
2006 [8] | ![]() Giorgio Sardo Massimo Paternoster Silvia Perrone Andrea Sossich | ![]() Carlos Rodrigues Ivan Cardim Madson Menezes | ![]() Jan-Kristian Markiewicz Gøran Hansen Hans Olav Norheim Jonas Follesø |
2007 | ![]() Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin Jatupon Sukkasem Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn | ![]() Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong Vasan Chienmaneetaweesin Jatupon Sukkasem Pathompol Saeng-Uraiporn | ![]() Imran Allie Conroy Smith Ayson Baxter Damion Mitchel |
2008 [9] | ![]() David Burela Edward Hooper Dimaz Pramudnya Long Zheng | ![]() Dusan Zelenik Jakub Simko Michal Kompan Marian Honsch | |
2009 | ![]() Adrian Buzgar Calin Juravle Andreas Resios | ![]() Maxim Bovykin Sergey Fedorov Denis Gnatyuk Alexey Klishin | |
2010 [11] | ![]() Krithee Sirisith Pichai Sodsai Thanasunn Dilokpinitnun Nonthawat Srichad | ![]() Zlatibor Veljković Milan Kojadinović Goran Nikolić Vanja Zavišin | ![]() Vinny Lohan Steve Ward Kayo Lakadia Chanyeol Yoo |
2011 [12] | ![]() James McNamara Calum Cawley Matthew Padden Aine Conaghan | ![]() Qian Yan Shashank Srinivas David Hayden Michael Astrauskas | ![]() Yousef Wadi Mohammad Azzam Monir Abu Hilal Hani Abu Huwaij |
2012 [13] | ![]() Stepanov Anton Posternikov Anton Osika Maxim Jasakov Valery | ||
2013 [14] | ![]() | ||
2014 [15] | ![]() | ||
2015 [16] | ![]() | ||
2016 [17] | ![]() | ||
2017 [18] | ![]() | ||
2018 [19] | ![]() | ||
2019 [20] | ![]() Bryan Chiang | ![]() Bharat Sundal | ![]() Ferdinand Loesch Choon Kiat Lee Sachin Sriskanda |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2005 [22] | ![]() Andre Furtado Adeline Silva Madson Menezes Raony Araujo | ![]() Sergey Dubovi Pavel Zadumkin Dmitry Kozlov Anastasiya Filinova | ![]() Liu Teifeng Yang Yongzhi He Cong Yang Lizhen |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2007 | ![]() Andre Furtado | ||
2008 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2009 | ![]() | ![]() | |
2010 [11] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2011 [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | ![]() Sameet Singh Khajuria Karun AB Amith George Noel Sequeira | ![]() Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Eduardo Sonnino Renato Ferreira Roberto Sonnino | ![]() Dariusz Walczak Marcin Wrzos Piotr Sikora Tomasz Nowak |
2009 [27] | ![]() Amirton Chagas Flavio Almeida Joao Paulo Oliveira Santos Lucas Mello | ![]() Mohammed Y. Eshbeata Laith Dawahir Wassim Shehadeh | ![]() Tomasz Ciejka Grzegorz Glonek Jacek Pintera Krzysztof Szokal-Egird |
2010 [28] [29] | ![]() Shawn Mclean Derron Brown Dwayne Samuels Markel Mairs | ![]() Hugo Rodrigues Edmiel Leandro Daniel Ferreira Eduardo Sonnino | ![]() Yudha Antawiryawan Kania Audrint Anggunmeka Luhur Prasasti Widyara Desgita |
2011 [12] | ![]() Giorgos Karakatsiotis Vangos Pterneas | ![]() Daniel Ferreira Lucas Mello Amirton Chagas Joao Paulo dos Santos Oliveira | ![]() Lukasz Michniewicz Szymon Majewski Marek Banaszak Magdalena Dudarska |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | ![]() Rafael Costa | ![]() Kenny Deriemaeker | ![]() Dong HoonKim |
2009 | ![]() Luciano José | ![]() | ![]() |
2010 [11] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2011 Mobile [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() Pierre Elias |
2011 Web [12] | ![]() | ![]() Thomas Tiam-Lee | ![]() |
2011 Windows/Xbox [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2012 Windows/Xbox [31] | ![]() | ||
2014 [33] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2015 [34] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2016 | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2006 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2007 [35] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2008 [9] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2009 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2010 [11] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2011 [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2010 [11] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2011 [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2012 [36] | ![]() Matteo Valoriani | N/A | N/A |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | ![]() | N/A | N/A |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2011 [12] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() Tristan Gibeau Cy Khormaee Wilson To Jason Wakizaka |
2012 [13] | ![]() Noureldien Hussein (Nour El-Dien Hussein) Muhammad El-Orabi Kariem El-Shazly | ![]() Karol Stosik | ![]() Apurva Jaiswal Irena Prochkova Gitanjali Sachdeva Maimuna Syed |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2011 [12] | ![]() Anthony Froissant José Martins | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2013 [37] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2014 [33] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() Matthew McCann Jack Gallagher KC Grant Donal McClean |
2015 [34] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2016 [38] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2013 [39] | ![]() Robert Parker Alex Bochenski Jonathan Neumann Edward Noel | ![]() | ![]() |
2014 [33] | ![]() Hayden Do Jason Wei Chris Duan Derek Zhu | ![]() | ![]() |
2015 [34] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2016 [40] | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | ![]() | ||
2013 [37] | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | ![]() ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | Drive Social Impact![]() Learning and Education |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | ![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | World Citizenship |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | World Citizenship![]() | ||
2015 [34] | World Citizenship![]() |
Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2014 [33] | World Citizenship![]() |
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. [41] With this program, startups receive access to current, full-featured software development tools and platforms. [42]
Previous teams include:
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:
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:
Imagine Cup participants from around the world who won their regional competitions in 2010 have been recognized by their government leaders. [43] In October 2010, two Imagine Cup 2010 United States finalists (Wilson To [44] from the Mobilifeteam and Christian Hood from BeastWare)[ citation needed ] 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,[ citation needed ] 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. [45]
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