Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 – Champs from Patiala and Mumbai to represent India at world finals in New York

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011

Emerge as winners amongst nearly 90,000 students across the country

· Team Infiniti from University College of Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala and  Team Drushti from V.E.S. Institute of Technology, Mumbai emerged as champions in the Software Design and Embedded development categories respectively

· Team Infiniti through their project WebAssist envisions to change the way disabled persons interact with the web and eliminate their problems pertaining to internet accessibility

· Team Drushti through their project iRIS intends to provide visually impaired users a natural way of interacting with a computing device and thus, facilitates ease of access

Team Infiniti from University College of Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala and Team Drushti from V.E.S. Institute of Technology, Mumbai emerged as the winners at the India finals of Imagine Cup 2011, the world’s premier student technology competition. The teams will now represent India at the world finals in New York, USA, in July, this year. The teams were felicitated by Norman Judah, chief technology officer of Worldwide Services at Microsoft , P. Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India and Ashwin Karuhatty, World Wide Director, Technical Student Audience, Microsoft Corporation at one of the biggest student’s event that witnessed attendance of over 1500 students, faculty, academicians as well as parents of participating students.

Team Infiniti came up with a unique solution of changing the way disabled persons interact with the web and eliminate their problems pertaining to internet accessibility while Team Drushti devised a solution that provides visually impaired users a natural way of interacting with a computing device and thus, facilitates ease of access.

Microsoft Imagine Cup, now in its ninth year, saw more than 90,000 Indian students from colleges across the country, register for the competition. Out of these, after a series of shortlists, the top six teams from the ‘Software Design’ category and top seven teams from the ‘Embedded Development’ category remained to compete for the first prize and for the honor of representing the country at the global finals in July this year. These teams showcased their innovative projects before an eminent panel of judges with a mix of academicians and industry representatives. Team Infiniti and Team Drushti were chosen as the best in Software Design and Embedded Development category respectively.

Thrilled on winning the India finals in the Software Design category, one of the representatives from Team Infiniti, said, “This is a dream come true for us where we have been Text Box: PROJECT SYNOPSIS TEAM INFINITI intends to change the way disabled persons interact with the web and eliminate their problems pertaining to internet accessibility. The project named WebAssist is a framework which provides numerous Assistive Technology features in order to provide disabled people easier access to the information on the web. With the incorporation of these techniques on the Cloud, the project is envisioned to be a momentous step towards a truly ‘inclusive web’. TEAM DRUSHTI’S Project iRIS provides visually impaired users a natural way of interacting with a computing device and thus, facilitates ease of access. With ease of access, the users can learn and work better thus improving their standard of living by providing means of education and employment and becoming self-sufficient. able to showcase our innovation. Our project is a solution to change the way disabled persons interact with the web and eliminate their problems pertaining to internet accessibility. We hope that we will make the country proud at the Imagine Cup world finals in New York in July”.

Excited on the victory in the Embedded Development category, a representative from Team Drushti, said, “We are delighted to have been selected amongst 400 teams across the country in this category. Our project aims at providing visually impaired users a natural way of interacting with a computing device thus, facilitating the ease of access. We are excited and looking forward to represent the country at the world finals in New York.”

Commenting on the initiative, one of the judges, Shilpi Kapoor, BarrierBreak Technologies, said, “Imagine Cup is a unique platform to tap the imaginative talent of young minds by giving them an opportunity to think out-of-box and solve the toughest problems faced by the society today. It aims to infuse the spirit of discovery amongst the students, promote hands-on exploration and investigative learning in different areas of technology. I am particularly excited about the projects these students have developed to enhance the computing experience of people with disabilities. I am sure these talented students will do us proud”

Congratulating all the finalists on having made it to the shortlist from the thousands that registered, Pratima Amonkar, Director, Academia, Microsoft India, said, “We, at Microsoft believe that today’s youth are country’s future innovators and given the right opportunity, they can produce great results. Imagine Cup is a platform that encourages students to come up with path-breaking innovative technological solutions that help to solve problems faced by today’s world. The kind of projects these students have come up with, clearly showcases the talent for scientific accomplishments and innovation that exists in our country. We are hopeful that the teams from India will do us proud at Imagine Cup world finals in New York too.”

Imagine Cup is a year-long activity open to students across the globe. The competition begins with local, regional and online contests, followed by screening of best projects from each country and with winners from these legs participating in the global finals held at a different location every year.  In its ninth year in 2011, the competition challenged the students to help solve one of the many tough problems that the world is facing today, as identified by the United Nations in its Millennium Development Goals ranging from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education.