Vote to help students solve the world’s toughest problems

It’s been an intense few months for students participating in the Imagine Cup as national and regional finals competitions took place nearly every day in towns and cities across the globe. I had witnessed the India finals (here is my post on the India finals) and was mesmerized by the kind of solutions the young minds had come up with. Now that Imagine Cup country finals have wrapped up and the worldwide finalists have been named, the teams are now preparing for their next big challenge – the Worldwide Finals in Warsaw, Poland. But before the formal competition kicks off next month, Microsoft is inviting everyone to view all of the incredible software design projects and vote for their favorite online. Beginning today and running through July 7^th, videos of the worldwide finalist Imagine Cup teams and their innovations will be showcased at www.imaginecup.com.

To vote, simply select a country or browse through the projects to see how these students are using technology to help solve tough problems and make an impact on the world. The team with the most votes will be honored with the People’s Choice Award at the Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony on July 8^th, which will be available via live webcast on www.imaginecup.com.The People’s Choice Award is a great way for family, friends and fans to get involved in the Imagine Cup from home and rally behind their national team.

Supreeth S of Team Invisible Ideas from SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu emerged as a winner at the India finals. He will now represent India at the world finals in Warsaw, Poland, in July this year. Below are the details of his solution to solve one of the toughest problems of the world:

INVISIBLE IDEAS is envisioned to address the problem of low education ratioin India using Microsoft MultiPoint mouse technology by incorporating the educational content in computer games. The solution is a collaborative learning application which consists of entertaining educational games and fun activities. It enables the use of multiple mice on a single computer, allowing all students to learn and play simultaneously. The contents of the application have been developed using the latest Microsoft Multipoint technology. It can be used by up to 4 students simultaneously. Features of the application:

• Student Module – has been developed using the Windows Multipoint SDK 1.5 and can be used by up to 4 students simultaneously. The games and activities are:
• Teacher Module: This is a WPF application that is intended to be used by the teacher. The questions, answers for all the games (Memory game, Fast Math Word Finder) can be added or deleted, and the grid for the Word Finder game can be changed.
• SQL Server Database: The questions and the answers of all games are stored in the database.
• Web Service: This is an ASP.NET XML Web Service that is used to retrieve questions from the database as well as add/delete questions.  This is consumed by both the teacher as well as student modules. Therefore the questions can be set by the teacher remotely using her computer and the application on the student computers retrieve data from the server using this web service.

Vote for Supreeth today and spread the word with your friends and family.

Meanwhile, the good news for India is that 3 additional teams have qualified for the world finals from India – KOLA from Chennai and Target Unlocked from Delhi for the Envisioning 2020 Award and Team Wiminds from Delhi for the Embedded Development.

All the best to all the 4 teams, hope they win and  do India proud!