'Imagine Cup'

a better future for young innovators:

Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment..." Now imagine you could actually be a part of making that world a reality! You guessed right... 'Imagine Cup 2008' is back once more, to inspire, encourage and bridge the gap between the world you imagine, and the one you live in.

Now, in its sixth year, the 'Imagine Cup' is Microsoft's way of inspiring young people to apply their imagination, passion and creativity, to technology innovations that could help create a better world for us all. This year's competition had an overwhelming response of over 180,000 university and high school students, from 150 countries across the globe.

The 'Imagine Cup' is the world's premier student technology competition where teams submit their projects for a chance to compete at the global finals, to be held from July 3 to 11 this year in Paris, France.

An annual project of Microsoft, the competition welcomes students to apply their technical and creative talents toward solving a different social challenge each year. Two of our very own teams represented Sri Lanka at the World Festival in Seoul, South Korea last year, with the 'Short Film' team making it right through to the Worldwide sixth position.

Already over 650 students have registered from Sri Lanka this year; more than double the number of registrations compared to last year. Lankan teams have shown a keen interest across the board this year, with entries in almost all the competition categories. These entries include not only teams from the leading Universities but also school teams from cities as away from Colombo as Vavuniya.

"Our larger mission in working closely with academia is to empower students from diverse cultures, economic backgrounds and educational institutions to achieve their personal and professional goals," said Developer Evangelist of Microsoft Sri Lanka Wellington Perera." "We are committed to supporting diverse outlets for students to pursue their technological and creative interests beyond the classroom," he added.

UNESCO, which has signed a global cooperation agreement with Microsoft to promote socio-economic development around the world, is pleased to officially endorse the 'Imagine Cup', which is in keeping with their unique mandate to promote international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and communication.

The 'Imagine Cup 2008' has been altered slightly from last year in relation to its nine categories. This year, the Web Development category is discontinued and a Game Development category has been introduced, thus inviting students to develop games using Microsoft XNA Game Development Studio.

Also, these nine competitions are grouped overall under three main sections, namely, Technology Solutions, Skills Challenges and Digital Arts. Software Design, Embedded Development and Game Development are grouped under Technology Solutions and Algorithm, IT Challenge and Project Hoshimi are grouped under Skills Challenges while Short Film, Photography and Interface are grouped under Digital Arts.

In Sri Lanka this year, six teams have advanced from the first round to make their presentations at the final to be held on April 22 at the Grand Ballroom of Galadari Hotel, Colombo.

The finalists comprise teams from varied universities and IT institutions in Sri Lanka. The University of Moratuwa has produced three finalists' teams this year, team Pehasara with their project "GreenPlease" and members consisting of Suresh Lasantha, Damith Sulochana, Sanka Dilmadu and Shermila Madushani, team 'Will Power' with their project "Cleaning License Management System" by team members Hasini Gunasinghe, Chamini Annakkage, Saumya Wanniarachchi and Shyama Gunarathne and team Sasrutha consisting of Sapumal Ahangama, Chethiya Abeysinghe, Supunmali Ahangama and Dasuni Kannangara with their project "Haritha Prayathna".

From the University of Colombo School of Computing comes team e-C with their project "e-Cultivators" consisting of Tharaka Jayasekara, Prabodha Tilakaratne, Chatura Perera and Gayan Gurusinghe and team E-Co consisting of Hasini Adhikari, Chanaka Upendra, T.H.M.S.U.S. Herath and Prabha Wanigaratne with their project "CarbonX".

From the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) comes Team Gagana consisting of Randima Egodawatta, Amila Gamlath, Minosha Jayasuriya and Thiwanka Kaluarachchi with their project "EDUMS".

To add to the satisfaction of creating innovative solutions to real-life social issues, winners are also rewarded with many cash incentives. In addition to the main competition prizes at the worldwide competition, Microsoft has also introduced several new prizes, such as the Software Design Windows Live Award with a cash price of $10,000 and The Interface Design Accessible Technology Award with a cash price of $8,000.

The 'Imagine Cup' also exposes students to work in depth with the latest Microsoft technologies.

For some 'Imagine Cup' participants, the worldwide finals yielded further opportunities to develop their project ideas, such as the top six Software Design teams being invited to attend the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator.

Now in its third year, the joint project of Microsoft and BT guides these champions into the next stage of developing their innovative ideas as a business.

The programme gives these students the novel opportunity to work closely with technology experts and business professionals from Microsoft, BT, other leading IT companies and top universities, on strategies for transforming their software concepts into working, marketable products.

While participants could potentially be offered the chance to continue working with BT and Microsoft to develop their ideas, the students retain all intellectual property rights and control over what they have created.

Lankan teens at Thai 'Songkran' festival

A bevy of 24 teenagers of the Thathsarani Dance Academy performed a selection of traditional Sri Lankan dances at the festival, 'Songkran'. They are being trained by veteran dancer Sunila Jayanthi who retired recently as the dance instructress of Visaka Vidyalaya Colombo.

The annual 'songkran' festival was celebrated throughout Thailand from April 12 to 14.

'Songkran' signifies the beginning of the solar New year.

'Songkran' is also called the water festival as water is used extensively in the celebrations. Initially they sprinkled water on members of the household, friends, neighbours and on Buddha statues. But today they keep tanks filled with water outside their homes and splash water on passers by.

Youngsters go in open pick-ups and trucks splashing water on everyone. Everyone enjoys being soaked in water.

There are also street parades, stage shows and beauty contests also throughout Thailand during this period. The teenagers performed two stage shows and took part in two street parades. The Lampang city administrators in the North of Thailand invited the group of dancers from Sri Lanka to participate in this year's celebrations.

The group of girls all between 13 years and 18 years enjoyed their visit to Lampang. Lampang city is no strange place for the Sri Lankan dancers as they go annually for traditional festivities. The visit also gave our teens an opportunity to visit the world Famous Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang and the coal power plant.

The visit was co-ordinated and arranged by Director, Sri Lanka Dance troupe, Tilak Fernando.