On Wednesday, April 22 under the slogan “Dream it. Build it. Live it”, the local Microsoft technology competition “Imagine Cup 2015” concluded with great success at the Cine Studio, University of Nicosia. Groups of students from all universities in Cyprus competed across three categories: Innovation, World Citizenship and Games.
The winning team from each category was chosen by a panel of judges, consisting of technology experts in Cyprus. The aim of the competition is to create applications that provide solutions to challenges that humanity faces, to implement innovative ideas as well as games.
In the Games category, the “Fource” team from the University of Cyprus emerged victorious. The team created an impressive game for Windows platforms, where the user guides a robot in a fantasy universe. Emphasis is given to the presentation of cosmological theories and their impact on everyday life. The game innovates in the way in which the user moves through space, transforming a three-dimensional world into two dimensions.
“ij’s” from the University of Nicosia was the winner in the Innovation category. The team created an App for smartphones and the web, allowing the user to “enter” his/her feelings at various moments during the day. These feelings can be shared with other users and stored for future retrieval, so that the user can remember how he/she felt during specific events. In cases where the user is feeling bad, he/she may request assistance from other users or experts from the field of psychology.
In the Category of World Citizenship, the winner was Frederick University’s “S.E.C.S” (Smart Eco Cultivation System). The team created a smart and ecological greenhouse and open space crop management system. Through this system, anyone who maintains a small or large crop – from a simple gardener to a professional farmer – can use sensors and other specialised equipment to manage it economically and ecologically through an application for smartphones, including irrigation, fertilisation, as well as monitoring humidity and temperature.
The three winning teams will compete against approximately 200 teams in World Semifinals. 35 teams will be selected to compete at the Imagine Cup World Finals that will take place in Seattle, USA, this coming July, and will also have the opportunity to participate in a Hackathon on the Microsoft’s new augmented reality platform HoloLens. The winning teams in each category will have the chance to win $50,000. This year, apart from the cash prizes, the winners will have the opportunity to meet the President of Microsoft, Satya Nadella in a face-to-face encounter.
The Imagine Cup technology competition promotes new ideas and encourages students to overcome their limits and discover new possibilities. The contest in Cyprus is organised by Microsoft with the support of CYTA and FxPro.
"Through the Imagine Cup competition, Microsoft is giving the opportunity to those technology students, programmers and application developers who have a business approach to their work, to develop software and technologies, create business plans and gain valuable and professional market experience”, said Ioannis Stavrinides, Developer eXperience Evangelist at Microsoft Cyprus. “This year, with the significant support of CYTA and FxPro, Cyprus will compete in the World Semifinals with three promising teams with highly innovative ideas and applications that can really change our lives", added Stavrinides.
Iasonas Iasonos, a member of the “S.E.C.S” team said: "The Imagine Cup competition gave us the opportunity to work with fellow students from a variety of disciplines. Our team consists of people from Informatics, Computer Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Business Administration, and through our collaboration we gained an overview of the development of such solutions. We are very excited at the opportunity given to us by Microsoft to represent Cyprus overseas. Our participation in the competition is giving us some wonderful life experiences, and we encourage all students in Cyprus to participate in the competition."
For more information visit www.imaginecup.com
