Microsoft is behind a new initiative designed to turn dreams into reality. In a partnership with BT, the Redmond company has announced that no less than 24 students will participate in the third annual Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program. The participants are grouped into six teams from Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Poland and Thailand, and are the top competitors from the 2007 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals. For a total of two weeks, the 24 aspiring software developers will be in Silicon Valley for the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program.

Microsoft has emphasized that the event is not only an opportunity for the participants to find solutions via their technical skills, but also to tailor their creations to real-world issues. And in the end, there is but a small step for the technology dreams to turn into reality, into commercial reality, that is.

"These young people are coming to this program as students, but they will leave as potential entrepreneurs," said Joe Wilson, senior director of academic initiatives at Microsoft. "In the Innovation Accelerator program, we help them combine the technical skills they already have with practical business know-how so they can create a business plan, attract investors and launch a successful product."

In excess of 100,000 students across the world initially participated in the 2007 Imagine Cup competition. The six teams that are now in Silicon Valley, participating in the Innovation Accelerator, have emerged as the finalists from the Imagine Cup World Festival held in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2007.

"These students potentially represent the next generation of technology business leaders as well as those who will create technology that positively impacts people's lives," said Joe Black, director of business development for emerging technologies at BT. "The goal of the Innovation Accelerator is to provide the guidance and education they'll need to turn their passion for technology and helping others into real-world applications and businesses."