Imagine Cup 2009: Innovative Students Take Science Gallery by Storm
April 30th was a very competitive day in Dublin. Students from around Ireland competed in Microsoft’s annual Imagine Cup competition at the Science Gallery in Trinity College.
The Imagine Cup is a contest open to students all around the world. Winners from each country go on to the finals which in 2009 are in Cairo, Egypt. There are several different competitions such as software design, embedded development, game development, robotics, and a lot more. The theme for this year is "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today" focusing on the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
The entries for Ireland’s software design final included a wide variety of solutions such as nutrition guides, surgery practice tools, tools to assist learning, and a lot more. The competition was quite steep.
The third prize went to IT Sligo team MediKnight. MediKnight’s solution was for connecting doctors and those working in health care in developing countries to those with more experience to share solutions and knowledge.
Second prize also went to an IT Sligo team – AmazEd built a really interesting solution to allow kids to learn math using a Lego NXT robot with an Xbox 360 controller.
Finally, the first prize was awarded to Trinity College’s team Trinity Sight. Trinity Sight developed a training tool for surgeons to practice removing cataracts. As they explained in their presentation, various countries in Africa needlessly suffer from increased blindness due to the prevalence of cataracts. Their solution can help train more surgeons to remove them safely. Trinity Sight will head to Cairo in July to compete with students from all over the world.
I had a great time at the Imagine Cup finals, and the Science Gallery was a great venue for this as they currently have their excellent “Infectious” exhibition on. The students were incredibly inspiring, and their enthusiasm is highly contagious. I am looking forward to cheering on team Trinity Sight in Cairo along with other Irish students in the additional Imagine Cup competition categories.
Irish Imagine Cup teams have done quite well in the finals for the past few years, with teams like Team signal, Team parkIT and Team Acid Rain who have gone on to compete internationally. We have high hopes for Trinity Sight this summer!
My pictures of the event are posted here: Irish Imagine Cup Finals 2009 (Set)
Cross posted from Martha's Blog.
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May 21, 2009
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