Microsoft Innovation Center Report 2008-2009 vol.11

The Student Day 2009 and Imagine Cup Japan 2009: Event For Students Aiming to be Next Generation’s Engineers

Related Links • The Student Day • Imagine Cup • Microsoft DreamSpark

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March 30th, 2008, Meguro Gajoen 2F Room Hana-Tsudoi

The Student Day 2009, a conference for students interested in computing or Microsoft Technologies, was held and as a part of this event, Imagine Cup Japan 2009, a global technology competition for students aiming to be next generation’s engineers, was held at the same venue.

Microsoft announced that Microsoft DreamSpark, one of its student support programs, would expand to include high school students from this year. Microsoft would start offering DreamSpark student version to high school students, providing a set of self-study software to enhance its early-stage human resource education activity.

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	Scout World-Class Developers: Providing Support from an Early Stage
	Students Challenging the World with Their Mentor Companies
	Brilliant Presentations, Q&A Showcased Before a Crowd of 400

Scout World-Class Developers: Providing Support from an Early Stage

At Microsoft, we actively support these kinds of early human resource education activities, putting into place programs to strengthen the four areas: internationalization, imagination, implementation, and specialization. Shunichi Kajisa (CTO, Microsoft Co. Ltd, Japan)

Microsoft has been engaged in a variety of activities to help create domestic innovation with Microsoft Innovation Center serving as a pivot, targeting the partner companies which use Microsoft technology for business as well as the newly-founded start-up companies which need a lot of support. In addition, Microsoft actively supports students aiming to be next generation's engineers.

"In today's classrooms, the de-emphasis on math and science is growing into a serious problem," Shunichi Kajisa (CTO, Microsoft Co. Ltd, Japan) delivered in an opening speech. "On the other hand, because the wave of internationalization continues moving, the human resources companies need are also changing. In such an environment, in order to aim for the creation of innovation and the sound growth of the IT industry, it is necessary to aggressively develop and foster talented people. At Microsoft, we actively support these kinds of early human resource education activities, putting into place programs to strengthen the four areas: internationalization, imagination, implementation, and specialization."

Such activities to enhance these four areas include: Imagine Cup (a global technology contest where students competes for their skills on the international stage and strengthen internationalization), Self-Learning Programming Lessons (self-learning through building robots and programs, as well as experiencing the entire process of the project from competition to assessment), IT Caravan (a program to strengthen specialization by visiting vocational high schools all over the nation and introducing IT technology), and Microsoft DreamSpark (a program that provides Microsoft's development environment and strengthens IT implementation).

"Microsoft also started Microsoft DreamSpark Student Version for high school students," continued Kajisa, "with the cooperation of Learning Software Information Research Center, a foundation under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. We hope that students have opportunities to experience the latest development environment as early as possible to build their capability for IT.”

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Students Challenging the World with Their Mentor Companies

“I look forward to unique initiatives from Imagine Cup that will foster untapped talent.” Ikuo Takeuchi (Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo)

Strengthening internationalization, the worldwide technology competition Imagine Cup is in its 6^th year this year. In 2008, when Keio University student Naohiro Takahashi won third place in the Algorithm division, over 2 million students from approximately 100 countries submitted entries. This year, under the theme of “Solve Global Problems Using IT,” students have entered from even more regions, and are aggressively competing for the world finals in Cairo, Egypt.

In Japan, many teams submitted entries to the Software Design division for next year. This division is, as in other regions, the toughest division in Japan. The best three teams made their way to the Imagine Cup Japan 2008.

"It's been said that outstanding talents hardly ever bloom in Japan," said Ikuo Takeuchi (Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo), "It is very important to provide the students with an opportunity, like Imagine Cup, to challenge the world. I look forward to unique initiatives that will foster untapped talent."

To improve the good points of the best products, one mentor company was assigned to each team. As instructors, Microsoft Innovation Award winner companies gave advice to their team for an attractive software design and effective presentation.

All three mentor companies highly evaluated the students' software design ability. With innovative ideas and efforts to solve issues raised in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, each team built a unique solution. Focusing on the presentation, the three mentor companies gave advice on how best to effectively communicate the software’s appeal.

Imagine Cup Japan 2009: Team Solutions and Mentor Companies

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Brilliant Presentations, Q&A Showcased Before a Crowd of 400

The evaluation I received at Imagine Cup, a competition held on a global scale, became definitive proof of my skills. Kotaro Nakayama (Assistant Professor of Tokyo University, The Center for knowledge Structuring)

Imagine Cup Japan 2009 was held as a program of The Student Day 2009 (March 30, 2008, Meguro Gajoen). Much of the spotlight of The Student Day 2009 participants was on the presentations in the Software Design division in a room packed with approximately 400 spectators.

According to judge Kotaro Nakayama (Assistant Professor of Tokyo University, The Center for knowledge Structuring), who was one of the top winners in Imagine Cup 2005 and 2006 World Finals, Imagine Cup is "the place to prove your skills."

"What I gained from participating in past competitions were," noted Assistant Prof. Nakayama, "global connections, a global perspective, and a lot of confidence. The evaluation I received at Imagine Cup, a competition held on a global scale, became definitive proof of my skills."

Each team masterfully explained the appeal of the solutions they proposed within the time limit, without any disadvantage to teams that had participated in past competitions. They also appropriately addressed questions raised by the five judges as well as members of the audience.

After strict screening, the team selected as the Japan national team for Imagine Cup 2009 World Finals was NISLab++. The competition was a close contest, more difficult for the judges to decide than last year’s was. However, needless to say about the solutions themselves, the winning key was the outstanding presentation of NISLab++ based on their experience in 2008 world finals.

"We want to revenge our defeat at the Paris Finals," asserted team NISLab++. With the advice from their mentor company ManaBing Co., Ltd, the team would brush up their solution and presentation to move on to the world finals in Egypt.

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