By Emeka Aginam
With more than 350 students from around the globe invited to compete at the 10th anniversary Microsoft Imagine Cup worldwide finals, organizers of the students technology competition, Microsoft has announced that no fewer than 105 teams that will represent their different countries at the worldwide finals next month in Sydney, Australia this summer to showcase their innovative ideas for using technology to solve the world’s toughest problems.

As the winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup competitions, these smart students represent the future of technology innovation and entrepreneurialism.

Already, student teams from 75 countries including Nigeria, Poland, Egypt, Singapore, Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Oman, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Brazil, Japan, UK, US among others have advanced to the finals with projects that tackle humanitarian issues including health, accessibility, the environment, education and more.

All the 2012 Imagine Cup worldwide finalists already announced will be eligible to apply for the Imagine Cup Grants program this year.

Although some countries have more than one teams, the teams including Gravity, Nkama Team, Boddy Music, mLab, Future Touch, Engine, Make A Sign, SPU Team, Digital Mangue, K-Vision, Greeni, IntegraKINECT, Greenway, Joshua Sim, Complex, Vivid, The Stack, Team OwNet, among others will compete at the worldwide finals event from July 6^th through 10^th 2012 for $175,000 (U.S.) in cash prizes in categories including Software Design, Game Design: Phone, Game Design: Xbox/Windows, the Windows Phone Challenge sponsored by Nokia, the IT Challenge, the Windows Azure Challenge, the Kinect Fun Labs Challenge sponsored by Microsoft Studios, and the Windows Metro Style App Challenge sponsored by Windows.

Similarly, Microsoft has also announcing two new awards for the worldwide finalists that are sponsored by The Coca-Cola Co.: Environmental Sustainability and Health Awareness.

All worldwide finalist teams , according to the software giant are invited to apply for these awards.

“During the past decade, students have taken the lead in adopting new technologies and championing social transformation,” Moorthy Uppaluri, general manager, Academic Programs at Microsoft, said in a statement adding that, “Ten years ago, we created Imagine Cup with the idea that students can change the world and every year they continue to demonstrate their passion and creativity in creating technology that makes the world a better place.”

More on the Environmental Sustainability and Health awareness awards:

Microsoft and Coca-Cola are also announcing a collaboration to encourage the next generation of young technologists and entrepreneurs to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to improve the environment and healthy living.

Imagine Cup worldwide finalist teams whose projects target these topics will be eligible to compete for the new Imagine Cup 2012 Environmental Sustainability Award and Health awareness award, sponsored by Coca-Cola.

With this development, Guy Wollaert, chief technical officer, The Coca-Cola Co. said that,

“Given the scale and complexity of today’s issues, it’s challenging for one business or even one industry to make a difference alone. The Coca-Cola Co. “Coca-Cola’s support of Imagine Cup provides an additional venue for students to be recognized for their innovation in addressing the world’s toughest environmental and health-related issues.”

The winning team for each award will be announced at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney and each team will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000 (U.S.).

A Decade of Imagine Cup:

Before now, Imagine Cup has inspired a generation, with 1.65 million students from 190 countries participating in the competition during the past decade.

Since last year for instance, students from 29 new regions and countries, including Haiti, Rwanda, the Republic of Kosovo and Myanmar, have registered for the competition.

This year marks the first time the Imagine Cup worldwide finals event will take place in Australia.

However, during the first Imagine Cup in 2003, there were a little more than 1,000 registrants from 25 countries, with only 15 finalist teams competing at the Worldwide Finals in Barcelona.

Tu Nguyen, from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, won first prize with a Pocket PC application designed to bridge the language gap between English-speaking waiters and Vietnamese-speaking chefs. Like many Imagine Cup alumni, Nguyen has gone on to become an entrepreneur and innovator; he was recognized in 2006 by the Midlands Business Journal as one of Omaha’s top 40 executives under 40 years of age, and is now chief technology officer of DocLanding, an online document management provider.

Dreaming Big and Creating Real-World Solutions: Imagine Cup Grants

To extend the impact of Imagine Cup, last year Microsoft launched the Imagine Cup Grants program, a three-year, $3 million investment by Microsoft to help students turn their ideas into reality.

The first year of grant recipients were announced in January, including team Lifelens (United States), which developed a Windows Phone application that can detect the presence of malaria through a blood sample.

The team is using the financial and in-kind support from the grant to develop its technology into a platform that uses Windows 8-based tablets and addresses other pathological diseases in addition to malaria.

“The Imagine Cup opens up students’ eyes to nontraditional technology applications that can address global issues and enable teams to brainstorm innovative ways to solve these problems,” Wilson To, said on behalf of the team.