By Emeka Aginam, in Sydney, Australia
With the two African countries including Uganda and Egypt failing to scale the hurdle to final round in the software category design competition in the ongoing Imagine cup software competition, a global competition that challenges students to use technology to solve the world’s toughest problems,  six countries including  Greece,  Japan, New Zealand,  Portugal,  Taiwan and  Ukraine are currently jostling to final round.

With this development, no African country will make it to final round  in all categories of the competition including  Software Design, Game Design: Xbox/Windows, and Game Design: Phone.

Software design finalists in jubilation at the Sydney convention center, in Australia

With great anxiety and expectations, flag-draped competitors, flashing cameras, big smiles, hoisted trophies  among the participants, three   countries will be selected for the final stage from the six countries  by tomorrow after their presentations before international panel of judges .

It would be recalled that out of 72 teams in the software design category that  initially presented their innovative solutions, only 20 teams made the list for the second round in the software design category.

Japan, Romania, Singapore, Greece, Ireland, China, Jordan, Qatar, Slovenia, Germany, Egypt, Australia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Taiwan, New Zealand, Uganda, Portugal, Korea and Oman were among the countries that made it to second round.

Game Design phone team:

Similarly, in the game design category, France, Hungary, and the Korea, United States have also advanced for the finalists in the game design phone team

Game Design: Xbox/Windows team:

In a related development, Belgium, Brazil, Iceland, Japan and Thailand were among the teams that are currently struggling to advance to the finalist.

Speaking to over 350,000 students during the announcement this evening, (Sunday) the Chief Judge Rob Miles, a Lecturer at the University of Hull, United Kingdom told the gathering that everybody was a winner.

“Iam amazed by your impressive solutions. Iam impressed. You are the future leaders.  Iam  glad that you made it to the world finals. Your solutions have the capacity to solve the world toughest problem. Use your solutions to make difference in the world” he said.

“The way I look at it, it’s like the 2012 Summer Games, the World Cup of soccer, and the World Series of baseball all rolled into one,”  Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism group had told the gathering during the opening ceremony.

He continued, “These students don’t know what’s not possible. It’s just amazing.

“The students’ ideas are fresh, and they’re willing to take technological risks that some seasoned professionals aren’t,” he says. “That’s the beautiful thing about Imagine Cup. It’s not just a competition; it is really, really allowing students to think beyond what’s possible.

“It is inspiring to watch the way students from a multitude of backgrounds find common ground as they combine their love of technology with their determination to make a difference.

“My generation would think code first, and then go find a problem to solve with that code,” he says. “Computer science was always the upper value. These kids don’t think that way. They think, ‘Hey, here’s a real-world problem, and computers are the best way to solve that.’ It’s a completely different way of thinking about and approaching the world using technology.”

Now, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Imagine Cup is a global competition that challenges students to use technology to solve the world’s toughest problems.

In the last decade, more than 1.65 million students representing more than 190 countries and regions have participated in the competition and have received more than $1.75 million in awards and price funds. Ten years ago, it started with just 1,000 students from 25 countries.

From software to video games to mobile apps, students create technology solutions to help improve education, healthcare, the environment and more.

Through local, regional and online competitions that take place globally, finalists are selected to attend the worldwide finals, the culmination of the competition and celebration of technology innovation.