{"id":92108,"date":"2019-04-17T13:04:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=432368"},"modified":"2019-04-17T13:04:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:04:24","slug":"building-for-the-future-imagine-cup-competition-helping-students-become-global-innovators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/17\/building-for-the-future-imagine-cup-competition-helping-students-become-global-innovators\/","title":{"rendered":"Building for the future: Imagine Cup competition helping students become global innovators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, professionals from around the globe join us at Build<\/a>, our premier developer conference, to learn about new technologies, gain hands-on experience, and level-up their development skills. It\u2019s one of my favorite events, and this year, it\u2019s getting even better as we extend these opportunities to students.<\/p>\n

For the first time, Build attendees are invited to bring up to two family members aged 14-21 to participate with them\u2014for free. We\u2019ll also bring in local Seattle-area high school students to participate in some of these learning opportunities. The newly created Student Zone at Build is designed to provide an immersive educational experience for the students and attendees, with access to a Surface-equipped lab, on-site experts, a career center, workshops, tech talks and live co-coding opportunities. Naturally, there will be Minecraft\u2014and so much more. Students can talk to cloud engineers, explore data with Azure Cognitive Services, learn about how to code on GitHub and use Visual Studio Code. There will be opportunities to learn more about AI and explore the most important technologies and skills developers of tomorrow will need.<\/p>\n

Microsoft is committed to empowering the next generation of creators to pursue their dreams through access to technology, resources and learning opportunities. One way we encourage students to break boundaries and address real problems is through the Imagine Cup<\/a>, which has seen students from around the world continually raise the innovation bar through teamwork. Now in its 17th<\/sup> year, the competition empowers tomorrow\u2019s talent to use their creativity, passion and diverse perspectives to solve the world\u2019s most pressing issues.<\/p>\n

Momentum for the Imagine Cup continues to grow\u2014more than 2 million students from 190 countries have competed in Imagine Cup since it started\u2014and this year, I\u2019m excited the World Championship will be held during Build. In fact, the Imagine Cup champion will be announced to kick off Day One of the event and will be immediately followed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella\u2019s keynote.<\/p>\n

Returning host, Corey Sanders<\/a>, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Solutions, is especially fitting for the Imagine Cup\u2014he holds four patents and was the creator of the Infrastructure-as-a-service offering for Azure, so he\u2019s deeply familiar with the innovation cycle on many dimensions. Last year\u2019s MC, Kate Yeager<\/a>, is also making a return appearance to call the action.<\/p>\n

\"Corey<\/a>\"Kate<\/a><\/p>\n

To get to the World Championship, teams must win their highly competitive regional competitions, which are wrapping up soon. These finalists have developed truly life- and world-changing ideas, like last year\u2019s winning concept, smartARM<\/a>, a robotic hand that uses a camera embedded in the palm to recognize objects and calculate the most appropriate grip for the object.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s champion will take home $100,000 USD, $50,000 USD in Azure credits, mentorship from the team at M12<\/a> (formerly Microsoft Ventures) and a mentoring session with Satya Nadella. A team of business and technology professionals will collectively decide the 2019 winning team, and you can watch the championship via live stream on the Build site<\/a> on Monday, May 6 at 8 a.m. Pacific Time. If you are interested in attending Build and haven\u2019t signed up, there is still time to register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judges include:<\/p>\n