Everything that the world may become "someday" lies in the hands of young people
today. As they look at the road ahead, their close relationship with technology
enables them to dream in ways we never have before. Put the two together, and you
have young minds holding the tools that can make their vision a reality.
This is the recipe that inspired Microsoft to create the Imagine Cup. What begins
with a burst of inspiration and a lot of hard work can become a future software
breakthrough, a future career, or a flourishing new industry. The Imagine Cup encourages
young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology
innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its eighth year,
the Imagine Cup has grown to be a global event. In 2009, more than 300,000 students
from 142 countries entered the Imagine Cup competition.
Imagine Cup has grown to be the premier student technology competition in Gulf.
Almost 2000 students registered in 2009 and registrations are expected to increase
to 9000 this year.
Students from all over Gulf put their minds, creativity, skills and efforts together
to solve the world’s toughest problems.
• Partnered with du to run local mobile competition
• Partnered with CNBC Arabia for monthly Imagine Cup TV show
• 32 Top stories in Gulf media outlets
• 7 TV broadcasts and interviews
• 49 teams entered the local Software Design competition
• 4 teams from the Gulf advanced to the World Wide finals in Egypt (2 UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain)
• Team from Sharjah University (UAE) placed 5th worldwide in People’s Choice Award
• Spawned “Imagine Us” competition for younger students in conjunction with the UAE Ministry of Education
Imagine Cup is used locally to fuel innovation, drive creativity and create student
led startup companies in the countries as part of the ICT economies. Students in
Gulf have outperformed themselves and have shown high levels of innovation and advanced
technical skills. They have shown the region that they can compete on a global scale
to create and develop applications that will solve worldwide problems in new and
innovative ways.
Imagine Cup is available in all countries around the world with Microsoft Gulf covering
the following countries:
2. Kuwait
3. Qatar
4. Oman
5. Bahrain
6. Yemen
This year the Gulf Regional finals will take place in May 2010 in Dubai to bring
together the top teams from our countries and have the students compete to be recognized
as the best in Gulf and have a chance to advance to the world wide finals in Poland.
