A team of four Thai students won the $25,000 first prize in Microsoft’s 2007 Imagine Cup in Seoul in the Software Design category. Their project was ultra cool software that enables computers to speak typed and handwritten text for people who cannot read. The Imagine Cup had nine categories. One of them was the IT Challenge category, where participants were “challenged to develop, deploy, and maintain IT systems that are efficient, functional, robust and secure. Additionally, students must demonstrate proficiency in the science of networks, databases, and servers, and the areas of analysis and decision making in IT environments,” according to the competition’s Web site.
If you have been following the posts of Microsoft Subnet blogger and Imagine Cup judge Rand Morimoto, you have the inside skinny of the IT Challenge category from his video of the opening ceremonies to how contestants swilled free Cokes to keep themselves awake during the 24-hour phase of the competition. Here’s a link to the video that “tee’d up the award recognition” in Morimoto’s own words. Cool stuff.
