What S New This Year?

IMAGINE CUP OVERVIEW Dream it. Build it. Live it.

What Is Imagine Cup? Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology program and competition. It provides an opportunity for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to collaborate, develop a technology application, create a business plan and gain a keen understanding of what is needed to bring a concept to market. In Imagine Cup, the brightest young minds join together to exemplify the power of student innovation. For the past decade, Imagine Cup students have created technology applications from software to video games to mobile apps designed to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, in the areas of education, healthcare, the environment and more. This year, Imagine Cup expanded to encourage even more students to apply their creativity by building apps that deliver technology innovations that advance user experiences in categories such as social networks, search, classifieds, online shopping or games — or that create entirely new categories the world hasn’t even imagined. What’s New This Year?  Imagine Cup centers around three Competitions: World Citizenship, Games and Innovation. This new structure builds on the elements that have been so popular with students in the past 10 years — social impact and gaming — while expanding the competition’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.  To inspire more students and encourage a wider variety of students to participate in Imagine Cup, Microsoft is more than doubling the prize money for Competitions. First-place prizes for World Citizenship, Games and Innovation will each be $50,000.  This year, there will be no elimination rounds at the Worldwide Finals. Instead, all Worldwide Finalist teams will remain in the competition until winners are announced on the last day of the event. In addition, students competing in online Challenges that advance to the Worldwide Finals will compete onsite for first, second and third place.  Imagine Cup has evolved into a yearlong experience for students with various opportunities to compete and innovate. Students can compete in the World Citizenship, Innovation and Games Competitions or technology Challenges that lead to the Worldwide Finals for Windows Azure, Windows Phone or Windows 8, or in themed Challenges such as the Women’s Athletics App Challenge or the Imagine Cup Kodu Challenge that result in other awards and prizes and do not include a trip to the Worldwide Finals. How Does Imagine Cup Work? Students compete in teams of up to four people in Competitions including World Citizenship, Games and Innovation, and in online Challenges focused on specific technologies and platforms, including Windows 8, Windows Azure and Windows Phone. Students advance through various rounds of the competition either online or through in-person local finals events until they are selected to compete at the Worldwide Finals, where winners will be awarded travel, cash prizes and partnership awards totaling more than $1 million. The Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 8– 11, 2013. Students can also compete in themed Challenges for other prizes and awards that do not include traveling to or competing in the Worldwide Finals. Fast Facts  This is the 11th year of Imagine Cup — it started in 2003 with just 2,000 students from 25 countries.  This year’s motto is “Dream it. Build it. Live it.”  This marks the third year of the three-year Microsoft Imagine Cup Grants program. This year, teams with projects that focus on social good can apply at the end of calendar year 2013 to be part of the $3 million investment by Microsoft to help students turn their ideas into reality.  Imagine Cup students have been among the earliest adopters of new technologies, such as Kinect for Xbox 360, Windows 8, Windows Azure and Windows Phone.  Locations of Worldwide Finals: 2003: Barcelona, Spain 2006: Delhi, India 2009: Cairo, Egypt 2012: Sydney, Australia 2004: Sao Paulo, Brazil 2007: Seoul, South Korea 2010: Warsaw, Poland 2013: St. Petersburg, Russia 2005: Yokohama, Japan 2008: Paris, France 2011: New York, USA

Online Resources  Imagine Cup website  Flickr  Twitter  Blog  Virtual Pressroom  YouTube  Facebook Competitions Competitions span the full year and are the cornerstone competitions for Imagine Cup, requiring students to create complete applications built on Microsoft technology. They can be presented in person at local finals events or submitted online in countries without in-person events; finalists advance to compete at the Worldwide Finals.

 World Citizenship. The Imagine Cup World Citizenship Competition honors the software application with the greatest potential to make a positive contribution to the betterment of humanity. An entrant in the World Citizenship Competition might tackle a vexing social or medical problem, promote education or generally harness the power of technology to enrich lives. Prizes: First Place, $50,000; Second Place, $10,000; Third Place, $5,000.

 Games. The Imagine Cup Games Competition honors the best student games built on Microsoft platforms: Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit and Xbox Live Indie Games. Microsoft is looking for fun, original games that are well-made and could find an enthusiastic audience. Game themes and content are up to the students, but content needs to be suitable for a broad, diverse audience. Prizes: First Place, $50,000; Second Place, $10,000; Third Place, $5,000.

 Innovation. The Imagine Cup Innovation Competition honors apps that deliver technology innovations that advance user experiences in major categories such as social networks, search, classifieds or online shopping — or that create entirely new categories. Prizes: First Place, $50,000; Second Place, $10,000; Third Place, $5,000.

Online Challenges Challenges provide an opportunity for students to participate in Imagine Cup by learning, prototyping and creating applications using the newest Microsoft technologies. They occur online only, and the top three teams in each category will attend the Worldwide Finals to compete for first-, second- or third-place awards. Challenges vary year to year and typically take place during a shorter span than the Imagine Cup Competitions.

 The Windows 8 App Challenge. This Challenge will test a team’s ability to design and build a Windows Store app that takes advantage of Windows 8 features and design principles to deliver an exceptional experience on the platform. Prizes: First Place, $10,000; Second Place, $5,000; Third Place, $3,000.  The Windows Phone Challenge. This Challenge seeks the best apps that feature startling functionality and device- focused utility combined with a delightful Windows Phone user experience. Prizes: First Place, $10,000; Second Place, $5,000; Third Place, $3,000.

 The Windows Azure Challenge. This Challenge is about getting a team started on the “next big thing” by leveraging Azure platform features to build a Web application. Prizes: First Place, $10,000; Second Place, $5,000; Third Place, $3,000.

 Brain Games Challenge. In this Challenge, individuals compete in a monthly trivia quiz. Each quiz will have six rounds of timed questions as well as a topic such as innovation or citizenship. The top score for the month wins $1,000 and everyone who competes enters a sweepstakes where one winner will get a free trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in July 2013 to see the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals firsthand. Themed Challenges These challenges do not feed into the Worldwide Finals and are offered in addition to the event.  Kodu Challenge. Open to aspiring game developers ages 9 to 18, this Challenge invites students to learn coding by developing a video game with Kodu, an easy-to-learn, game-creation toolkit and programming language available for free download on Windows-based PCs. Prizes open to both age brackets (9–12 and 13–18): First Place, $3,000; Second Place, $2,000; Third Place $1,000.  Women’s Athletics App Challenge. In this challenge, women are encouraged to create amazing apps for sports, fitness or athletics. Prizes: $1,000 for each team member, up to four and a trip to Seattle to see the Seattle Storm basketball team, meet an athlete and meet Lisa Brummel of Microsoft and co-owner of the Storm. Awards

 AppCampus. Microsoft and Nokia invested in AppCampus, a mobile accelerator program, to foster application development on Windows Phone and Nokia platforms. All Imagine Cup worldwide finalist teams with a Windows Phone project are eligible to apply for this award. Prizes: 50,000 euros in funding (split in 70/30 as outlined in award process) and airfare and accommodations to attend four-week AppCampus training event in Finland.  DreamSpark Learning Award. Worldwide Finalists teams that develop a project showcasing how software can create new ways of learning and/or teaching can apply for the DreamSpark Learning Award. Grand Prize, $5,000.  Facebook Creativity Award. All worldwide finalists that integrate Facebook Login into their apps to grow distribution and increase engagement will be eligible for the grand prize of $25,000 in Facebook advertising credits.  KFC Russia Award. All Worldwide Finalist teams with Kinect projects related to youth culture, healthy lifestyles or nutrition will be eligible to receive $10,000 prize and have their project featured at the KFC flagship restaurant in Moscow.  Mail.Ru Group Connected Planet Award. As one of Russia’s leading Internet service providers Mail.Ru Group is looking for projects that embrace online communications and entertainment in fun, useful and innovative ways. Prizes: First Place, $10,000; Second Place, $5,000; Third Place, $3,000.  Women’s Empowerment Award. Microsoft and UN Women are looking for innovative technology solutions that help empower women to improve their lives, their rights and their futures. All Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalists are eligible to submit their projects for consideration. Projects will be evaluated for relevancy and impact on the lives of women. Prizes: First Place, $12,000; Second Place, $8,000. Award Boosts  The DevExpress Boost. The first-place team in the World Citizenship, Innovation and Games competitions, along with the first-place teams for the Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Windows Azure Challenges, will receive a DevExpress Universal Subscription for each team member. Value: $2,199.99 per subscription.  Windows 8 Boost. First-, second- and third-place winners whose projects include a Windows Store app in World Citizenship, Games and Innovation, along with the first-, second- and third-place winners in the Windows Azure and Windows Phone Challenge, will win an extra $1,000.  Windows Azure Boost. First-place winners that include Windows Azure Cloud Services, websites or virtual machines in World Citizenship, Games and Innovation competitions, along with first-place winners in the Windows 8 and Windows Phone challenge, will win an extra $1,000. Projects that include Windows Azure Mobile Services can win an additional $1,000. Winning projects that contain both boosts are eligible for the Double Shot bonus of $3,000.