Register to showcase your innovation at the 2020 Imagine Cup EMEA Online Regional Semifinals.
Do you have an idea that solves a problem? Can your idea use Microsoft’s Azure technology in solving the problem? Register to participate in Microsoft’s 2020 Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Imagine Cup online regional semifinals. For a chance to qualify to the EMEA Regional finals in Amsterdam. Where you can win USD 8,000 cash, Azure credits and travel to the world finals in Seattle.
Students at any qualified academic institution aged 16 and above can participate in the cup competition. Teams can be of one to three members.
Imagine Cup is about innovations changing the way we live. It is about solutions and applications that save lives.
The competition provides a platform for student teams across the globe to showcase the technology ideas they create. How those technologies can not only shape their futures, but directly improve the lives of users.
EMEA Online Regional Semifinals
The competition begins with a call to submit unique ideas to the online regional semi-final competition. Submit your EMEA online regional semi-final projects by December 15, 2019. Announcement of finalists will take place on 15th January 2020. They will advance to present their projects 10th March 2020 at the in-person Regional Finals in Amsterdam.
Local country competitions will he held in some countries. Winners from these countries will join the online winners at the 2020 Imagine Cup EMEA regional finals in Amsterdam. For a chance to qualify to the world finals. Last year team iCropal from Kabarak University, Kenya was one of such teams.
Team iCropal Left, present at EMEA regional finals in Amsterdam
2020 World Finals
Winners and runner up teams from EMEA, Asia and Americas Regional Final will meet in Seattle to compete in the Imagine Cup World Championship. For a chance to win USD 100,000 cash. As well as USD 50,000 in Azure grants and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Do you need help to get started? There are lots of resources to get you learning and going.
MSP’s at 2019 EMEA Microsoft Student Partner Summit. Amsterdam
Microsoft hosted MSP’s from across EMEA at the Microsoft Student Partner Summit 2019 in Amsterdam. Josh from Kenya shares his 5 day experience.
After 7 months into the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) program i was glad to be chosen to attend the EMEA Microsoft student partner summit 2019. This included a chance to attend the Microsoft Imagine cup EMEA Finals and Microsoft Ignite The Tour all held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. An opportunity like no other in my entire campus life. With an opportunity not just to network with other industry professionals but also to meet new people and tour a different country.
After a month of a great hustle to get all the travelling documents in place I was ready for it. In the early morning of 17th march I left for the summit and few minutes to 6 pm (UTC+1) I arrived in Amsterdam. Together with other MSP’s we left for the Holiday Inn where we would reside for the next 4 days.
Minutes after checking in at the hotel and settling in my room i headed for dinner. It was during dinner that I met the guy from the PI Project who was here for the Imagine cup reginal finals from Russia. It did not occur to me that this was the team that would take the third position. I also did meet Lee Stott who gave me more insight on the Machine Learning Stack on azure. Pretty much day one involved much of networking with the other MSP’s, Imagine Cup Finalists and the team from Microsoft.
Microsoft Student Partner Summit
18th March, Day one of the MSP summit – After breakfast we took a bus direct to Microsoft Offices. One thing would catch your attention at the offices and this was Microsoft’s mission placed in bold and in light. The first activity was a talk from GIST Network revolving around how to build a perfect pitch for your idea and put all the blocks together into a nice presentation.
The MSP Summit day 1 activity begun later in the afternoon as the Imagine cup finalists had their mentorship sessions. During this I had an opportunity to share with fellow MSP’s what it takes to run a student community on campus. Next, we teamed up for the open hack, work on an idea and pitch it the next day. Just like in all hacks this was a day where the better part of the night was spent writing the code. Follow the thread for the open hack projects here
Team iCropal, presenting at 2019 Imagine Cup EMEA regional finals in Amsterdam
19th March, second day of the summit and the day for the imagine cup final competition. – This was a very inspiring day for me to see what student across the region can come up. I was glad to meet the team from Kenya Team iCropal. After the imagine cup competition I got the opportunity to have a chat with Wiley Larsen about a project I am currently working on. I got a lot of new ideas and how to cope with some of the challenges. Big thanks Wiley Larsen.
20th March Microsoft Ignite The Tour. Headed to Amsterdam Rai for the conference. – I had chosen the Learning path Getting most out of your data. And out of the four session I attended one session (Using Artificial Intelligence to Augment Data) was captivating, and many people showed up for it. The day ended with a private dinner, yes for the first time I’m mentioning meals. This is why, during the dinner we had raffle tickets and five lucky individuals would win 250USD. Unfortunately, that was not me.
21st March, Final day in Amsterdam. Headed to Rai Amsterdam for the live Microsoft Mechanics Show. Spent the next 2 hours exploring the city. Checked out the hotel at 11 am.
This was an exciting moment to learn, network and explore. Special thanks to Pablo(Microsoft Imagine Cup, program manager) and the whole team from Microsoft for this incredible opportunity.
Tunisia team Athena-IO, wins USD 5000 and Microsoft Azure Grant as Second place winners.
Team Athena-IO came in second place in the just ended Europe Middle East and Africa regional final championship qualifying round. They won 5,000 USD and Microsoft Azure Grant as their prize. They unfortunately couldn’t pick a spot at the world championship as the style of the competition is different this year.
Athena-IO’s idea is a cross-platform solution enabling content creation and visualization on Mixed Reality devices such as the HoloLens. To help corporations train their workforce and make technology more accessible to everyone.
Team iCropal, Kenya present to judges
Three teams; EKKO, Pakistan, Athena-IO, Tunisia and iCropal, Kenya joined 9 others from Europe as 12 EMEA Regional Finalist. This means no team gets to represent Africa and the Middle East in the world championship this year.
The Journey to the World Finals
This year there will be three Regional Finals hosted at Microsoft Ignite The Tour events. The Asia, EMEA and Americas regional finals with winners meeting in May for the world finals. World Finals winners will recieve USD100,000 Microsoft Azure Grant and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“We understand that today’s students are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. They will also become technology decision makes. Whatever we can do to help make them better for tomorrow, we want to invest in that” – Jennifer Ritzinger, our Senior Director of Academic Ecosystems.
The Imagine Cup 2019 EMEA Regional Final was hosted at the Amsterdam Microsoft Ignite The Tour event. Giving finalists the opportunity to pitch their ideas to event attendees during its welcome reception. The student developers received feedback for their ideas. One team was selected by the Ignite tour attendees as the People’s Choice Award recepient.
Microsoft says hosting the regional finals at The Ignite Tour will help student developers learn how to take their projects to the next level and integrate the latest and greatest technologies into their solutions.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup has a mission to empower student developers to achieve more and create the next great technology solutions. With students also getting the chance to win cash, prizes, mentoring and travel in the process.
“We believe that with student innovation and creativity, partnered with Microsoft technologies and Azure cloud resources, the possibilities are endless”.
Register to participate in the 2019 Imagine Cup EMEA Online Regional Semifinals for a chance to qualify to the world finals.
Do you have an idea that solves a problem? Can your idea use Microsoft’s Azure technology to solve the problem? Register to participate in Microsoft’s 2019 Imagine Cup competition. The cup competition is opened to students at any qualified academic institution aged 16 and above.
The Imagine Cup competition is about innovations changing the way we live. It is about solutions and applications that save lives. The competition provides a platform for student teams across the globe to showcase the technology ideas they create. How those technologies can not only shape their futures, but directly improve the lives of users.
2018 Imagine Cup World Finals
There are two ways to qualify for the Imagine Cup World Finals held each year. Either through the local national finals in your country or through the Online Finals.
The 2019 Imagine Cup: EMEA Regional Online Finals is opened to student teams from Europe (Western, Central and Eastern), Middle East, and Africa countries.
Submit an original idea entry by 02:59:59 GMT +0 on Wednessday 16th January for a chance to qualify to the world finals. A chance to win USD 15000 + a spot in the world championship, USD 5000 or USD 1000.
Selected Online Regional Finalist will be announced in March 2019 for the online finals.
