Team Buzzlers from the University of Bahrain was declared the Bahrain national champion of the “Imagine Cup 2013” at a special event yesterday.

 

Team Meraki and Team IT Knights came in second and third place, respectively, said an announcement from Microsoft, Tamkeen and the eGovernment Authority. 

 

Team Buzzlers received their boarding pass to the “Imagine Cup 2013” Worldwide Finals taking place in St. Petersburg, Russia between July 8 and 13, 2013. 

 

During the final competition, the six shortlisted teams presented their projects in front of a live audience and a judging panel consisting of an array of industry experts representing the Imagine Cup’s local and regional sponsors, as well as a representative of Microsoft Bahrain.

 

The panel included Tareq Hijazi, regional country manager for Microsoft Bahrain and Oman; Dr Abdulla Alsada, senior manager at Tamkeen; Mohammed Ziad Asfour, assistant director - marketing and awareness directorate, eGovernment Authority; and Hasan Haider, chief executive officer of Tenmou. 

 

Team Buzzlers won competition for its project Bundle, an application that allows users make accounts to create and share Bundles, and view other people's Bundles. A Bundle is a collection of links to websites, blogs and / or social media medium. It can also include uploaded documents or photos. These Bundles can be made for the purpose of advertisement, awareness, recommendation, sharing personal preferences, helping others or simply for fun. 

 

Team Meraki, a joint venture between students from University of Bahrain and Delmon University, presented Wanderlust, a user’s window to the world around him/her. It helps the users discover and learn more about the places of interest in the country that they visit, using Augmented Reality. With Wanderlust, the traveller won’t have to worry about getting touristic guides or flipping pages.

 

Team IT Knights from the University of Bahrain participated with Friday Night application, a social application that helps users set up gatherings with their friends. The vision of Friday Night is employing new technologies to help the community members get off their couches and desks and enjoy face-to-face hangouts and real-life activities.

 

 “We had received a good number of great projects, and we were happy to have six teams competing in the local finals and showcased Bahrain students’ great potential,” said Hijazi.

 

Tamkeen’s chief executive Mahmood Hashem AlKooheji said: “One of the core values of Tamkeen is to prepare Bahrain’s youth for the job market. Not only does this programme allow Bahraini youth to use their creativity and imagination, it also gives them opportunities to further develop their ideas and encourages them to participate in a highly competitive environment.”

 

“I would like to congratulate all the winners for accomplishing such extraordinary projects. The eGovernment Authority has continually been keen to support the ICT-related events organized in the country – especially those concerned with the youth as we strongly encourage them to utilize their imagination towards creating innovative technology solutions,” stated eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Ali Al Qaed.

 

Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is the world’s most prestigious student technology competition, bringing together student innovators from all over the world. This year, Microsoft has redesigned Imagine Cup around three new core competitions built on the core elements that have been most popular with students in the past 10 years — social impact and gaming — while expanding the competition’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. – TradeArabia News Service