25 April, 2012 Team Revolution to represent the UAE at Microsoft "Imagine Cup 2012" worldwide finals in Sydney

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: In partnership with du, Microsoft announced the winners of the Imagine Cup 2012 UAE finals at an event held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. Considered the world's premiere technology competition, Imagine Cup encourages students to use their imagination to create innovative technology solutions that can help address some of the world's toughest issues.

Team Revolution, whose project tackled the issue of waste management and biofuels was announced as the first place winner in the Software Design category in the UAE. The team will now go on to participate in the Imagine Cup worldwide finals later this year. The team was presented with the Grand Prize of an all expenses paid trip to Sydney, Australia to represent the UAE in the Imagine Cup worldwide finals in July 2012.  The first place winning team members will also receive ASUS laptops along with other exciting prizes.

"It gives me great pleasure to see how far Imagine Cup has come since 2003 when the competition only included 1,000 participants," said Samer Abu-Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. "Imagine Cup empowers students to use their creative and technical abilities to make a positive impact on society, and over the years the competition has grown to provide hundreds of thousands of students with a platform to showcase their exponential talent. I'm looking forward to seeing team Revolution compete globally at the Imagine Cup 2012 worldwide finals in Sydney and wish them the best of luck."

Team Revolution's 'Reutilizer' project featured a mobile application and website which can be used by individuals to tackle waste management and biofuels. The website can be used by small restaurants to avoid waste and uses a mapping algorithm which groups nearby individuals and stores in order to optimize pickups and make routes more efficient.  The project was selected based on the team's innovative use of technology to solve one of the key issues the world is facing today; managing waste in a sustainable manner. The team consists of Shawn Frank and Ronak Dave from the University of Wollongong in Dubai.

"Our partnership with Microsoft on Imagine Cup highlights the power of technology in making positive changes in the community when combined with young talent in the UAE," said Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, du. "We congratulate the winning team (s) and wish them all the very best to make us proud in the finals. At the same time we would like to reiterate the fine quality of each of the finalist teams' presentations to the judges. The depth of talent we have here in the UAE is astonishing and we are proud to have been part of a project that showcased the work of the technology leaders of the future."

Coming in at Second place was team Samazons' Sleep Apnea monitor project which was also received the best Mobile Development Award from du, with third place going to Team Craino's Sparkaa project. The people's choice award which was voted for by the audience at today's event went to Team AEMA-Creations' Absolute Security project which secures any software or digital product against piracy by using advanced encryption.

The five projects shortlisted were submitted by teams from universities and schools across the country, including the University of Wollongong in Dubai, the American University of Sharjah, the Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani - Dubai Campus and the International School of Choueifat, Dubai. Using their creativity, the students developed ideas to address the Imagine Cup 2012 theme: 'Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems,' and were given the opportunity to present their projects to a panel of judges including industry veterans from du, Wamda, ASUS Middle East and Emirates Group.  

Microsoft is working to support the UAE's national vision by realizing the potential of the local workforce through initiatives such as Imagine Cup. By driving local growth and supporting the human foundation of knowledge-based economies through access to technology, training programs, public and private sector partnerships and education initiatives, Microsoft hopes to play a key role in improving student's skills and fostering an innovation mindset.

For more information on Imagine Cup 2012, please visit http://www.imaginecupgulf.com/uae.aspx

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