Microsoft's Imagine Cup set to rock the software development world for 2010

Australia's got an entry in Microsoft's Imagine Cup this year, and your votes can give them a helping hand!

With a name like Imagine Cup and the weight of a company like Microsoft thrown behind it, one wouldn't assume this to be a small event - in stark contrast, this year's Cup involved over 325,000 students from high schools and universities from over a hundred different regions.

Of these many thousands of contestants were selected the very best, pooling together 400 students who will be shipped off to Warsaw, Poland for a chance to dance in the spotlight.

But what is the Imagine Cup, and why is it worth paying attention to? For many it remains an unknown event, unheard of in its obscurity and unclear in its purpose - though it has been running for eight consecutive years. We're going to look a little closer.

Imagine Cup 2010: One gigantic tank of brains

Microsoft's Imagine Cup can best be described as a software challenge posed to the best and brightest up-and-coming minds, asking them to develop their own ideas for software that can literally change the world we live in.

Entrants can choose categories in which to compete, all themed around the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, from the following five:

Category	What it's all about
Software Design	Microsoft explain that the Software Design category is the most popular category in which to enter; and the goal is to: "Create inventive software and service solutions that unleash the power of technology to benefit your community, country or region... or ... the entire planet." This must use a Microsoft technology like the .NET Framework, but the winners grab themselves US$25,000.
Embedded Development	The Embedded Development category is based around a universal platform, dubbed eBox, for which software must be created. It must help achieve the Millennium Development goals in some way, and examples were offered to us such as agricultural tracking of livestock (hunger) or monitoring of disease-bearing insects (health). Winners can net US$25,000.
Game Design	Game Design is pretty much what it says on the tin; create an interactive title that incorporates the Millennium theme. Though it must be developed with XNA Game Studio, Visual Studio or Silverlight, the end result can be quite open to interpretation, whether that be a 2D sidescroller or full 3D teaching aid. This category is judged by industry coders and gamers; US$25,000 is up for grabs.
Digital Media	This category revolves around Digital Media and its rising influence on society; particularly video. Entrants must create a video that fulfils the Milennium theme, and this category doesn't demand highly advanced understanding of programming languages - just a good eye for film. First prize winners can net themselves US$8,000.
IT Challenge	The IT Challenge pulls the focus from low-level software to higher-level systems, giving a new kind of challenge that is a very real problem - reliability. Entrants must create a system that is not only speedy and functional, but one that is sturdy and reliable, able to withstand the heaviest workloads and most demanding users. First place can net US$8,000

The Finals

The Imagine Cup finals will take place from the 3-8th of July, and as Microsoft's Game Design Competition Captain Andrew Parsons explains, "the focus is on the student experience".

As he notes in his blog post, Parsons has high hopes for this year's Cup. "The six games [finalists] are phenomenal and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their final presentations in Poland"

Each category demands that at least one Microsoft software or technology be used to create the entry and contestants are filtered through three separate rounds to result in a few finalists who will be flown to Poland.

Among them are an Australian team - team 1337 - who hail from the University of Canberra. Their entry focuses on primary school education, creating a unique education system that aims to help teachers, parents and children to gain equal access to something that quite a few of us may take for granted.

Atomic will be covering the 2010 Imagine Cup live on the ground at Warsaw, and as we wait to see the results of this bubbling cauldron of enthusiasm and talent, feel free to check out the Aussie entry - and give them a vote towards the People's Choice Awards.