Team Smile Laugh all the Way to Silicon Valley
Team Smile, a group of postgraduate students from the Department of
Information Systems in the Faculty of Commerce achieved international
recognition this week at the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition in Paris and
will travel to Silicon Valley for intense business and technology training
as part of their prize.
Accompanied by their lecturer Mike Eccles were Devin de Vries,
Christopher King, Nabeel Nazeer and Nadeem Isaacs who came 2nd in the Rural
Competition and were listed as one of the most feasible business solutions.
Microsoft Corp. announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2008 at the Musée du
Louvre, after a week of intense competition among finalists chosen from a
pool of more than 200 000 students from over 100 countries.
It is the world's premier competition for technology students and gives
them the chance to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that
tackle real-world issues. Working around the clock, Team Smile developed an
innovation to enhance the lives of bus commuters using SMS technology.
 "Imagine Cup provides a forum for students around the world to explore
new ways to use the power of software to help address some of the world's
toughest challenges," said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the
Developer Division at Microsoft. "The high calibre of the students and their
projects is evidence of the high level of innovation seen in the student
community today, with a clear potential for real-world impact."
The theme was: "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable
environment."
Team Smile will have the opportunity to explore how their software solutions
could potentially turn into business realities. They will receive intense
business and technology training as part of the Imagine Cup Innovation
Accelerator program, co-sponsored by Microsoft and British
Telecommunications plc (BT).
"The creativity demonstrated by the competitors this year has shown that
tomorrow's technology leaders are ready to apply their solutions to
real-world issues," said Joe Black, director of Business Development for
Emerging Technologies, BT.
"The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator is an exceptional opportunity for
young developers to explore the entrepreneurial possibilities of their
software solutions. We are excited to offer our encouragement, guidance, and
support to these talented students through comprehensive training sessions
to help students bring their ideas to fruition."
The
six teams chosen to participate in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator
program were:
- South Africa – Team Smile
- Australia — Team SOAK
- France — Team Well K'Home
- Germany — Team PoinT-Power in Time
- Hungary — Team Digital Mania
- Slovakia — Team Housekeepers
Imagine Cup 2009 will be held in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. The theme
will be "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems
facing us today." Students will be asked to create software solutions that
are aligned to one of the Millennium Development Goals, which range from
halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing
universal primary education.
Posted by Carolyn McGibbon on 10/07/2008
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