Microsoft’s premier student competition, Imagine Cup engages new technologists around the world to promote platform adaption, expand market access, and source top talent. By participating, young science and tech entrepreneurs create new and innovative projects that highlight their passion and ingenuity, and will have the opportunity to network with professionals, gain new skills, win funding to further implement their ideas and receive mentoring from topnotch technology leaders. Through several rounds of online and in-person competition, they compete for the championship, the cash prize, and the mentorship.
Past Imagine Cup winners have spurred economic opportunities and employment, with many great innovators seeing their career change after the competition. Some of the previous winners have gone on to work for Microsoft, delivering their innovation back to the market. Other student competitors have built careers in startups, industry, healthcare and more, utilizing skills they learned throughout the competition experience and advice they received from mentors along the way.
To announce this year’s Imagine Cup, Microsoft Philippines held a virtual launch event recently, opening the competition up to Filipino participants. Microsoft Philippines Country Manager, Andres Ortola, addressed the students, past Imagine Cup winners, public sector audience, and enterprise representatives in attendance.
Ortola strongly encouraged Filipino students to submit their entries, citing that in the middle of a global pandemic, “Imagine Cup is an opportunity; a platform to connect and make a difference, through innovation. An example of that innovation is RapidPass, a project that saw
Microsoft partnering with Developer Connect (DevCon) Philippines and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to create an application to help frontliners delivering help when it was needed.”
The much-awaited Microsoft Imagine Cup 2021, which is now open to students for submission of entries, will offer a grand cash prize of up to USD$75,000. The winner not only brings the cash prize, but will also get a mentorship session with Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella.
The Imagine Cup is about innovations changing the way we live; about solutions and applications that save lives. The competition has become a platform for student teams to develop effective answers for improving the lifestyle of people around the globe, through the technology ideas they have created.
The past 19 years have seen more than two million students join this spirited competition, from as many as 200 countries participating, with most of these student applications showing valuable and impactful projects, using Microsoft technologies.
Pablo Veramendi, global director for Imagine Cup, called on tech-savvy students around the world, saying, “we want to see what you can do! We want to see what you want to change in your world, in your community. It’s all up to you. We are providing you a platform as we take your ideas and bring it to a global stage.”
Veramendi is also the global program manager of Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador, a program which provides clear steps to help students learn and lead so they can make a difference and empower those around them. They learn new skills, solve real-world problems, and build communities across the globe through this program. Applications are open all year, and the next quarterly deadline for application is on November 30. Members of this program are also encouraged to apply to Imagine Cup, as they may have unique technology solutions and projects they have previously worked on.
With the mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft, through Imagine Cup, hopes that the next technology solutions tackling global issues will emerge.
Registration is now officially open for all interested participants. To register or learn more about Imagine Cup 2021, visit www.imaginecup.com.
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