Voting is now open in the Microsoft Imagine Cup
Nine years ago Microsoft created the Imagine Cup as a way of recognizing and inspiring worldwide student innovation in technology. Student teams develop software and games that tackle global problems. The United States finalists have been selected and voting has begun to narrow down the field. The U. S. winners will continue to the international competition.
The Imagine Cup finalists can be found on Facebook where voting will take place. You can click on each team to see the team page showing the team members, team mentor, a short synopsis of their project and then a video that explains it in more detail.
Students who participate gain real-world skills that help them in school, in their careers or even as they commercialize their projects, all while tackling global problems.
The software projects tackle such issues as the causes of childhood cancers, improving the gathering and distribution of disaster aid, helping children with learning disabilities and other topics to improve medical care or access for those with disabilities. Most of the games tackle environmental issues such as pollution, sustainability, and recycling.
The videos are very detailed. They explain the purpose of the software or game and how it will be developed. Of course, the participants will be using various Microsoft products. After all, this is a Microsoft competition. Several of the programs use smartphones and or Windows Phone7 as well as the predictable computers and cloud computing.
The Worldwide Finals will be held for the first time in the United States. The hope is that students in the U.S. will be inspired to major in computers and information related studies. Microsoft says:
In fact, by 2014, 1 million jobs in these fields are expected to be added to the U.S. workforce, but only 50 percent of the available jobs will have qualified U.S. graduates to fill them. The Imagine Cup is designed to support and inspire studies in these critical fields.
Some cynics might say that with the way companies are exporting similar jobs to third world countries, the actual number of jobs in the U.S. workforce will be much lower. Other cynics would lament the reduction of funding for education from Head Start through graduate school that will make it almost impossible to provide qualified U. S. workers.
The less cynical will applaud Microsoft’s ongoing competition for providing the impetus and forum for allowing students to gain experience and contacts in computer and information technologies.
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