Central and Eastern Europe's Theatre of Dreams — the Imagine Cup

Students from Central and Eastern Europe are proving themselves formidable competitors in Microsoft's global student innovation contest, the Imagine Cup. As many teams from across the region have discovered, it is a competition where victory is not the only prize.

PARIS — 4 July 2008 — There is a world in the not too distant future; it is world like our own but slightly different —better. In this world, for example, people with heart problems are monitored constantly, no matter where they or their doctors are; musicians can play together, though they are separated by thousands of miles of ocean; those with sight problems can walk through cities without a guide; and barriers to those with hearing problems are pulled down. If you are finding it difficult to imagine this world, don't worry, because students from Central and Eastern Europe have already done it for you - welcome to the world of the Imagine Cup.

From small acorns mighty oaks grow: in 2003 Barcelona played host to Microsoft's annual Tech•Ed event and, within this festival of technology, something remarkable was born. Student teams came together to showcase their ideas and compete for a new technology prize — the Imagine Cup. From Barcelona to Sao Paolo to Yokohama to Delhi to Seoul and now to Paris, the competition has grown to become a world-leading international technology event in its own right. This year's global talent search has seen 100,000 students from more than 100 countries unleash their innovative potential. With nearly a quarter of all finalists coming from Central and Eastern Europe, it is a competition the region is making its own.

"The Imagine Cup is a huge opportunity for all students, but it's something very special here," said Andrey Terekhov, Microsoft's academic programmes lead in Central and Eastern Europe. "Our young people are rich in innovative ideas and have the entrepreneurial flair to turn them into applications that can change the world .The Imagine Cup gives them an unequalled opportunity to channel this talent and enthusiasm, and they are seizing it."

This passion has evidently been turned into achievement, with Central and Eastern European teams holding an enviable record in the competition. In 2006 Polish students claimed all three prizes in the algorithm category, Romanian students claimed second prize in the IT category and a Czech team has successfully commercialised its entry to help the blind. "The vision of the Imagine Cup is to develop software that changes the world, but it can also change the world for the students who take part," says Terekhov.

Stan Vonog and Nikolay Surin from Russia came to the Imagine Cup in 2005 with their team, OmniMusic, and walked away as winners of the whole competition. Their triumph, however, was just the beginning. Vonog and Surin were chosen to take part in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator Programme, which aims to help teams take their ideas to the next level, and saw the pair develop a business model with the help of experts in London.

"Imagine Cup gathers together the world's best young software engineers with entrepreneurial minds," says Vonog. "It's very competitive and tough, but winning is a great achievement, a great honour and a great encouragement to change the world for the better. The Imagine Cup helped changed the world for me, putting me on the entrepreneurial path and unlocking a new world of opportunities."

Musigy (www.musigy.com) makes it possible for 200 million musicians to play together across continents, simply by plugging their instruments into a computer. Artists can perform together in real time; rehearsing, teaching remotely and creating perfectly synchronised pieces of music from anywhere in the world. In 2006 Musigy hosted the world's first truly live online concert, Jazz@the Speed of Light, which drew an audience of 10,000 people. As well as audiences, Musigy is attracting interest from venture capitalists eager to share in the company's potential.

Winning the cup, however, is not a prerequisite for turning dreams into a sustainable reality. Terekhov adds, "There's an old adage, 'it's not the winning but the taking part' —and this has never been truer than in the Imagine Cup. Winning is great, of course, but time and time again we see students who have come back from the finals and discovered that the greatest prizes are the lessons they have taken from the competition." The experiences of Greek and Croatian competitors demonstrate Terekhov's point beautifully.

The 2004 competition saw an entry from Thessaloniki's Aristotle University finish third. The end of the competition, however, signalled the beginning of a new opportunity. Their SmartEyes application gives directions to specified destinations through voice commands, allowing the blind and visually impaired to become more independent and comfortable navigating city streets. SmartEyes has evolved into a pilot research programme with an initial €500,000 provided by Microsoft Hellas, Greek telecommunications company Cosmote and digital maps provider Geomatics. The team also impressed audiences at the 2007 European MarketPlace on Corporate Social Responsibility, a major exposition that showcases European innovation.

A year later and another team from Aristotle University finished second in the software design category, similarly making the leap from innovative idea to viable application. Their Imagine Cup entry, Sign2Talk, allows two-way communication with those with hearing impairments by translating American Sign Language into speech, and vice-versa, using a wireless armband. The team has secured €500,000 from the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Development to drive the idea forward.

Sixth place in 2006 and selection for the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator Programme was the perfect springboard for Croatian students Marko Velić, Miroslav Novak, Marko Orešković and Zlatko Stapić. Their SmartECG is a small, portable electrocardiogram (ECG) that monitors and analyses heart activity, alerting medical services via SMS to problems and the patient's location. Imagine Cup and Accelerator experience led to the creation of a new company, 'Initium Futuri', which has attracted backing from Croatian venture capital company Ruđer Inovacije. Miroslav Novak is clear that assistance has been invaluable, "Hard work and late night coding finally paid off when the company was established. The Accelerator Programme helped us in getting an overall picture of the process involved in starting an IT company."

In spite of the already impressive evidence of Imagine Cup success, shared by many more teams from across the region, Terekhov believes that the best is yet to come. "Putting your ideas in the spotlight, opening them up to the scrutiny of judges and audiences, is an exhilarating experience —a formative and definitive moment for a growing number of young people. The Imagine Cup is a theatre of dreams, giving our students a stage on which to perform, opportunities to pursue exciting new careers and the chance to build friendships that will last and support them for the rest of their lives."