This week, 112 student teams from across the world are in Seoul, South Korea, to compete in Microsoft's Imagine Cup world finals.
The competition attracted in excess of 100 000 students from over 100 countries during its regional leg and only the "best of the best" have made it through to the week-long final event, says Microsoft.
Currently in its fifth year, the Imagine Cup challenges students to find technology-based solutions to real-world issues. The theme for this year is "Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all".
Learn to win
The Imagine Cup has nine categories divided into three sections: technology solutions, skills challenge and digital arts.
The main category of the competition is software design, attracting $50 000 in total prize money. Along with embedded development and Web development, software design falls into the technology solutions category.
Under the skills challenges section, teams can compete in the Project Hoshimi Programming Battle, the IT challenge and algorithm categories.
The digital arts section includes photography, short film and interface design.
Total prize money for this year's event is $170 000. Additionally, six teams from the software design category of the competition will have the opportunity to travel to the UK to participate in the 2007 Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator programme, a joint project from Microsoft and BT.
Team SA
<B>At</B> <B>a glance:</B>
Imagine Cup categories with the number of competing teams in brackets.
Software design (55)
Embedded development (15)
Web development (6)
Project Hoshimi Programming Battle (6)
IT challenge (6)
Algorithm (6)
Short film (6)
Photography (6)
Interface design (6)
SA's student contingent will be participating in the software design category of the competition.
Made up of three students from the University of Pretoria - Davide de Caires, Claudie Watson Ferreira and Grant Lindner - and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University alumni, Nicholas Goossens; Team SA hopes to impress judges with its educational administration system.
The system, codenamed eduCORE, follows each student through his or her education life cycle, recording personal details, attendance and performance. It includes a two-pronged mobile strategy. The first facilitates SMS notification to parents and guardians of non-attendance. The second provides instructor access to key student information - like health details - while out on a school trip.
The eduCORE system uses a combination of client/server, Web and mobile device-based applications. It is built on a three-tier architecture and is a fully object oriented design.
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