In August, three students representing Malta and the Eastern Mediterranean region will head to the worldwide finals of the Imagine Cup 2006 competition in Delhi, India, to compete against 150 students from over 100 countries.
This is the second time that Maltese IT students have participated in this competition, as a result of the Vertical Strategic Alliance between Microsoft and the Investment, Industry and IT ministry. Last year, two Maltese students came second against other finalist teams from within the region, including Cyprus, Lebanon, and Jordan.
This year, capping two phases of intense national and regional competitions, Roberta Muscat, Mark Galea and Marco Muscat from the University of Malta achieved first place and will present their work in India for a chance to win more than $50,000 in total cash prizes.
The team endured gruelling national and regional reviews of their work by a panel of judges from academia and the greater technology industry in Lebanon, Jordan, Malta and Cyprus.
The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition that provides an outlet for IT students to explore technological and artistic interests outside the classroom, and it represents one of the many ways in which Microsoft is enabling the students of the world to realise their full potential.
“The students participating in the Imagine Cup competition represent the next generation of technology and business leaders,” said Microsoft general manager Eastern Mediterranean Charles Nahas. “Each of them has created an application that demonstrates the power of technology in solving real-world problems.
“Their creativity and innovation is inspiring and speaks volumes about the future of technology.”
More than 60 students compromising 20 teams participated in the regional competition. Using Microsoft technology and .Net Web services, the students were asked to create a mobile application that would enable people to live a healthier life.
Microsoft officials who have worked with Imagine Cup teams say the breadth of innovation bodes well for future technologies.
“Difficult to imagine? Not for the participants in this year’s Imagine Cup Competition,” said Microsoft technical advisor Eastern Mediterranean Muhieddine Chaaban.
“Through their work developing entries for the competition, many students pushed themselves in ways they perhaps had not thought possible and they also learned a lot about new technologies.”
Roberta Muscat said: “Winning the Imagine Cup Eastern Mediterranean finals is an honour. The Imagine Cup has already opened doors in the education community, and the overwhelmingly positive response from the judges and participants has validated the universal need and appeal of our vision. We are anxiously awaiting the trip to Japan where we will face stiff competition from Imagine Cup entrants.”
Mark Galea said: “The experience has been both challenging and exhilarating, and for all the participants, there was the difficult job of balancing work for the competition with learning the new skills needed for the competition, while also keeping up with university work. It was a great opportunity and a great experience that still isn’t over.”
The project presented by the University of Malta team was entitled “iFridge”, which is a vision of the fridge of the future.
The iFridge is a normal refrigerator that has a web browser built into the door and also an RFID reader. The functions of iFridge include the monitoring of the food consumption of the entire family, providing information on the expiry date of products, suggestions for recipes – based on the contents of the fridge, and detecting unhealthy eating habits, with email facilities to the family
doctor.
Over the past four years, the Imagine Cup has seen tremendous growth in terms of student participation (now reaching 65,000 students) and the number of countries and universities represented.
Individuals and teams from more than 100 countries have competed in Imagine Cup 2006, where the prizes to be won include cash prizes ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.