CAIRO, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- Students address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals with
innovative technology.

After an intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more
than 300,000 students from more than 100 countries and regions, Microsoft
Corp. announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2009. Celebrating first place,
Romania's Team SYTECH won the worldwide Software Design invitational, South
Korea's Team Wafree won the Embedded Development invitational and Brazil's
Team LEVV It won the Game Development challenge. Imagine Cup, the world's
premier student technology competition, empowers students to unlock their
creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing
society today.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

"The creativity and imagination that students poured into their projects
this year was incredible," said Joe Wilson, senior director of Academic
Initiatives, Developer & Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft. "Many of
these projects have the potential to have a serious impact on how we address
society's most pressing issues. We hope that all of the students who
participated this year will continue their pursuit of creating technology in
the service of making the world a better place."

The software design, embedded development and game development finalist
teams created applications, devices and games using Microsoft technology
based on this year's theme: "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the
toughest problems facing us today."

A total of 444 students from 149 teams representing 70 countries and
regions competed in the Imagine Cup 2009 Worldwide Finals in nine categories:
Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, IT Challenge,
Robotics and Algorithm, MashUp, Photography, Short Film and Design. In
addition to the main categories of competition, there are several Achievement
Awards this year: the Interoperability Award, Unlimited Potential Design for
Development Award, Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award,
Accessibility Award, Accessible Design Award, Parallel Computing Award,
Tablet Accessibility Award, Live Services Award, Windows Mobile Award, and
the H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award, sponsored by the first lady of
Egypt through the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI).

The winners were announced in a gala awards ceremony this evening at the
base of Egypt's historic pyramids as part of the Imagine Cup World Festival,
a celebration drawing Imagine Cup competitors, mentors and other key
attendees from around the world. The following are the top three finalists by
invitational in finishing order:

- Software Design
        - First place: Romania - SYTECH
        - Second place: Russia - Vital Lab
        - Third place: Brazil - Virtual Dreams

    - Embedded Development
        - First place: South Korea - Wafree
        - Second place: China - iSee
        - Third place: Ukraine - Intellectronics

    - Game Development
        - First place: Brazil - LEVV It
        - Second place: United States - Epsylon Games
        - Third place: United Kingdom - Sanquine Labs

    - Robotics and Algorithm
        - First place: Czech Republic - Lukas Perutka
        - Second place: Canada - Byron Knoll
        - Third place: China - Lin Fuming

    - IT Challenge
        - First place: Romania - Cosmin Ilie
        - Second place: China - Wu Chang
        - Third place: Bolivia - Miklos Cari Sivila

    - MashUp
        - First place: United States - CURIOS
        - Second place: Poland - Monastery of Innovations
        - Third place: Singapore - PlanetKY

    - Photography
        - First place: Croatia -Voodoo Delirium
        - Second place: Singapore - Woolgathering
        - Third place: Japan - Terada

    - Short Film
        - First place: United Kingdom - Fulham Four
        - Second place: India - ChennaiCoolers
        - Third place: Ukraine - Just4Fun

    - Design
        - First place: Brazil - Willburn
        - Second place: United States - eXchangeFun
        - Third place: France - Paindepices

In addition to the category awards, 10 Achievement Awards were presented.

    - Interoperability Award. The Interoperability Award is designed to
      recognize the software application that best leverages out-of-the-box
      Microsoft technologies and blends them with other technologies to 
      connect people, data or diverse systems in a new way. This award was 
      won by:
        - First Place: Brazil - Proativa Team
        - Second Place: Poland - Fteams
        - Third Place: Jordan - ECRAM

    - Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award. This award challenges
      students to create a software solution that can be accessed from a basic
      mobile phone and designed to meet the needs of end users who earn less 
      than $8 (U.S.) a day. This award was won by:
        - First Place: Malaysia - COSMIC
        - Second Place: China - Unique Studio
        - Third Place: Malaysia - Capricorn

    - Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award. This award encourages
      students to unlock new ways for the PC to help address universal 
      education goals. This award was won by:
        - First Place: India - Trailblazers

    - Accessibility Award. Students are challenged to design a technology
      solution that leverages people's diverse physical and cognitive 
      abilities. This award was won by:
        - First Place: Saudi Arabia - ATST

    - Accessible Design Award: Students who participated in the Design
      competition were awarded additional recognition for a technology 
      solution that best addressed accessibility needs. This award was won by:
        - First Place: United States - eXchangeFun

    - Parallel Computing Award. Parallel applications can open a door to the
      future, and this award challenges students to use parallel technology to
      solve the world's toughest problems. This award was won by:
        - First Place: India - Biollel

    - Tablet Accessibility Award. The objective of the Tablet Accessibility
      Award is to create a new education application that uses Tablet 
      technology while expanding the possibilities for how a user interacts 
      with the computer. This award was won by:
        - First Place: United States - Auratech
        - Second Place: Brazil - IC-UNICAMP

    - Live Services Award: This award challenges students to create a
      technology solution built on Microsoft's Azure Services Platform to 
      solve the world's toughest problems. This award was won by:
        - First Place: France - Help'Aged
        - Second Place: Serbia - BrainWave

    - Windows Mobile Award: This award challenges students to use Windows
      Mobile technology to solve the world's toughest problems. This award 
      was won by:
        - First Place: Croatia - Team Explorer
        - Second Place: Indonesia - Big Bang
        - Third Place: Brazil - Virtual Dreams

    - H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award. Sponsored by the first lady of
      Egypt, this award was given to the project that best intersects the
      following: the Imagine Cup 2009 theme, "Imagine a world where technology
      helps solve the toughest problems facing us today"; the Millennium
      Development Goals; and the objectives of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's
      International Peace Movement and the Cyber Peace Initiative. This award 
      was won by:
        - First Place: Poland - kAMUflage
        - Second Place: Egypt - Big Buddy
        - Third Place: France - WikiChildProtect



Next year's Imagine Cup 2010 Worldwide Finals will take place in Poland,
a country with a track record of producing highly skilled IT students as well
as successful Imagine Cup entrants. Registrations for Imagine Cup 2010 open
tomorrow, July 8, 2009. More information about Imagine Cup can be found at
http://www.imaginecup.com.

Imagine Cup Sponsors

The Imagine Cup is being supported by a range of partner organizations
including Paramount Digital Entertainment, Mesh Services & Live Framework,
Microsoft Accessibility Business Unit, Microsoft Education Product Group,
Microsoft Interoperability, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Parallel Computing
Platform, Microsoft Research External Research, Microsoft Robotics, Microsoft
Unlimited Potential Group, Windows Embedded Business, Windows Mobile and
Microsoft XNA Game Platform Group.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.