As the World Cup continues to gain momentum, the festival of technology, Imagine Cup 2010, opened in Warsaw on Saturday evening.

Flags of all nations, including Malta’s, were waved to the tune of Wavin Flag – the official world cup song during the opening ceremony, as people from all continents got together outside the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. A Maltese team of university computer science students is getting an experience of a lifetime in the ‘city of Chopin’, a place which has developed enormously over the past decade after gaining independence from the Soviet Union and the fall of

communism.

This year’s imagine cup theme is the eight millennium development goals and the Maltese team – Dice, made up of Claire Dimech, Daniela Cauchi, Kurt Farrugia and Stefan Lia, all second year students, has worked on the goal of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and developing a global partnership for development.

Their project aims at making the world a better place, by tackling the issue of poor communication between doctors in developed countries and the lack of health care workers as well as volunteers in third world countries. Dice has designed communicating infrastructure software for people to finally disperse knowledge in this particular field across the globe.

“The improvement of dermatological care in third world countries can really leave an impact on people’s lives,” Dice believes. Moreover, dermatology is one of the very few medical areas in which scanning devices are not required. Consequently, Dice’s solution can be easily put into practice.

“You represent the best of the world but you are already winners. You represent your country,” some 400 students participating in the final round of the Imagine Cup 2010 competition were told by the general manager for Microsoft Education, John Perera.

“You are using technology to make a difference, take action,” he added. “You are the future innovators of technology”.

Meanwhile, Jacek Murawski, the general manager for Microsoft Poland spoke of the change Poland has gone through, not least with the aid of technology.

“When I was a student twenty years ago, Warsaw was very different, had great economic challenges, and was literally detached from the world economic scene. Life was very tough. The problems then seemed unsolvable,” he said in perfect English, as students, journalists and Microsoft employees listened attentively. “But through passion, leadership, technology, having young people together and allowing entrepreneurship, the progress since then is incomparable”.

In fact, last year the Polish economy was the only growing one in Europe, he pointed out.

“It is possible to change things and to achieve change within your lifetime. You can see the world against you changing but only if you engage and put technology, intellect, will and passion together and move things forward,” he said. “You may think that the problems of humanity are very huge and generations are necessary to move things forward. But it is not actually the case”.

The group of finalists was selected among more than 325,000 students who applied for the competition. Imagine Cup is being organised for the eighth consecutive year and past events were held in Brazil, Japan, India, France and Egypt among other countries.

The Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals 2010 are taking place in Warsaw, Poland, up till next Thursday. Additional information is available online at http://www.imaginecup.com. More than 400 students representing 113 teams from 70 countries and regions are competing.

Only 12 teams from the 68 participating teams in the first round of software design (the category in which the Maltese team is participating) will be selected. However, all students will be showcasing their products during the week at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.

Students will bring their ideas to life through real-world solutions and compete for six awards and cash prizes totalling approximately $240,000 across five competition categories: software design, embedded development, game design,

digital media, and IT challenge.

More information on the Maltese team is available on: www.mydermonline.com.