MS picks winners to contest $50,000 prize

BANGALORE: The winners of Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2005 are all set to participate in the worldwide finals in July 2005 at Yokohama, Japan for the total prize money of US $50,000.

The contest which was held in Bangalore this year is held by Microsoft to help students across the world showcase their software development skills before an international audience, said a statement from the company.

The annual contest is in its third year, and this year more than 6000 students across India participated, according to the press release.

The theme for Imagine Cup 2005 is "Breaking down Boundaries", and students were encouraged to conceptualize technology solutions to help address emerging social issues.

The winners of the zonal contest - CMRIT, Bangalore, IIT, Rorkee, MES College of Engineering, Pune and MIT, Aurangabad, participated in the national finals.

"India has emerged as the World's IT capital and students have a big role to play in ensuring that we continue to compete successfully in the global markets. Indian students are immensely talented, and amongst the most innovative technical minds in the world," said Sheila Gulati, Director, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India.

This year, Imagine Cup was open to both school and university students, and among other areas students were encouraged to submit applications that address social issues. The contest includes nine "open" categories such as Software Design, Technology Business plan and Rendering, and three special categories created only for school students.

Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited, Som Mittal, Vice President Worldwide Application Services Operations, HP India and M. Rammohan Rao, Dean, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad were a paert of the jury.

Microsoft Imagine Cup is being held in India for the third successive year.