A group of Pakistani students has been short-listed for the Microsoft’s international software competition, the company announced in a statement issued on Monday. This year, a group of students from FAST – National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, has been short-listed from Pakistan to participate in the final round of the Imagine Cup, USA. “It is the world’s largest premier students’ technology competition, which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges,” Microsoft said. “Pakistani students are known worldwide for their information technology skills,” it added.
The Pakistan finals were organised at Microsoft’s head office in Pakistan. Around 2,000 students were registered in Imagine Cup from Pakistan and around 50 teams competed in the Software Design category. Out of these 50 teams, the top four teams were short-listed by a panel of judges from both technical and business domains. Team V3C from FAST – National University of Computer and Emerging
Sciences, Islamabad, secured the first position. Imagine Cup is a unique platform to tap the imaginative talent of young minds by giving them an opportunity to think out of the box and solve the toughest problems faced by the society today.
“I am particularly excited about the projects these students have developed to enhance the computing experience of people. I am sure these talented students will make us proud,” said Kamal Ahmed, country general manager of Microsoft Pakistan.Talking about the competition, Tahir Masood of KalSoft said, “It is inspiring to meet so many students who are on the forefront of new discoveries, whether they go on to develop a breakthrough and solve real world issue, start a new company or become better prepared to enter the workforce, students who participate in the Imagine Cup are leading us into a brighter future.”
Hussain Sajjad, leader of the Imagine Cup 2011 Pakistani winning team said, “I am grateful to Microsoft for providing the opportunity to showcase our potential. We all are very excited about the worldwide finals and consider this as a great responsibility that we will be representing Pakistan and will surely do our best to raise our country’s flag in the global finals.” The winning team, V3C, will be fully sponsored by Microsoft to represent Pakistan in the Imagine Cup worldwide finals which will be held in the month of July this year in United States. Before competing in the worldwide finals the teams will also receive some expert guidance and mentorship from the local industry experts to improve their presentation skills and product design.
