14 DAY TRIAL // The finalists of this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 competition have been announced officially, with the official list available here. No less than 400 students, winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup 2011 competitions held in over 73 countries, will be heading to New York next month for the final round of the contest.
The Imagine Cup 2011 finalists are of course, la crème de la crème, and they’ve proven themselves simply by winning a spot at the Worldwide Finals in NY in July.
“Some of history’s greatest inventions were created by students. With the Microsoft Imagine Cup, students apply their innovative thinking to real-world causes in order to generate the future’s greatest inventions as well,” revealed S. Somasegar, senior vice president, Developer Division at Microsoft.
“To see young innovators and entrepreneurs harness their creativity and talent to benefit a greater good is absolutely inspiring.”
Winners of the worldwide finals will get not only accolades and international recognition, but also the chance to split a total of $215,000 in cash prizes.
Only 125 student teams managed to make their way to the final stage of Imagine Cup 2011 out of no less than 350,000 students from 183 countries.
“2011 marks the first time that the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals event, now in its ninth year, will take place in the United States,” the company revealed.
“Although the primary focus of the gathering is the competition, the finalist teams will also have opportunities to attend special training sessions, meet peers from around the world, and participate in volunteer and cultural activities while in New York. The final event of the competition, the Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony, will take place on Wednesday, July 13.”
Here are the Unites States teams that will be competing next month: Note-Taker from Arizona State University, ICsquared from Ithaca College, LifeLens (various universities), and Team Dragon from Rice University.
Four Romanian teams will be in the Imagine Cup 2011 finals, including: M.N.A. from NW College London, Universitatea Bucuresti, Endeavour_Design from Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Simplex from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, as well as Sinescu Ionut, a student from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University which will participate in the IT Challenge.