Imagine Cup semi-finalists announced

CAIRO, Egypt — July 4, 2009 — Finalists for Tuesday’s Imagine Cup final were announced today as the competition entered its second day today in Cairo. Some 444 students from 124 countries and regions entered the competition; in the two key categories of Software Design and Embedded Development, the competitors have been whittled to just twelve teams overall.

For Software Design, the Central and Eastern Europe region has a very strong representation with the Czech Republic’s ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’, Poland’s ‘Demoscene Spirit’, Russia’s ‘Vital Lab’ and Romania’s ‘SYTECH’ all making the semi-finals. In the Embedded Development competition, Ukraine’s Intellectronics has also been selected. The Central and Eastern Europe region is once again proving to be a hotbed of talent. Further shortlisting will be announced tonight, ahead of Tuesday’s grand finale.

Finalists are being judged on using technology to help address the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. These goals encompass some of the most difficult issues facing our world, ranging from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education. Imagine Cup calls on young programmers, artists and technologists to rise to the challenge ‘Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”.

Software Design
Virtual Dreams - Brazil
Ideorama Team - Colombia
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Czech Republic
Help’Aged - France
Movement Studio - Mexico
Demoscene Spirit - Poland
SYTECH - Romania
Vital Lab - Russia
LADP Development - Spain
Mahee - Sri Lanka
Tech-Volunteers -Taiwan
TKCL - United Kingdom

Embedded Development
Open Lab - Brazil
Bamboo & Papyrus - Canada
iSee - China
MedBox - Egypt
Wafree - Korea
Brainy Brownie - Mexico
SAS_EN - Sri Lanka
Seeds - Taiwan
AST - Turkey
Intellectronics - Ukraine
uUh - United Kingdom
PARV - USA