Rare chance to show off Web design skills
Hong Kong teenagers have been offered a chance to display their hi-tech talents. An annual competition designed to promote creativity among technology savvy university students is open to secondary school students for the first time.
The third Imagine Cup, organised by software giant Microsoft, expects to attract about 10,000 students aged above 14 from more than 90 countries.
The competition, which offers substantial cash prizes, consists of nine categories, including short films, visual gaming, and Web and software design. The deadline for entries is March 1, with the finals scheduled to be held in Yokohama, Japan, at the end of July.
This year's theme is 'Imagine a world where technology dissolves the boundaries between us'.
'Students are our future. We want to work with them to find new solutions, to build new applications. The world today is one big partnership and particularly so among the universities and students,' said Anmar Alani, director of Developer and Platform Group of Microsoft Hong Kong.
Alongside Imagine Cup, Microsoft is running a Web design competition for secondary students in Hong Kong. The top three local teams will be sent to the Microsoft Technology Centre in Beijing for a study trip. The deadline for the SAR contest is February 28.
'We tried to put some local benefit to this [Imagine Cup]. The local competition gives students a better chance to win,' said Mr Alani. 'But they don't have to go through the local one to go global. There is nothing to stop them from joining as many categories as they want.'
Only the regional winners of software design will get to the final in Japan, because 'this category has always been the most demanding competition over the years', Mr Alani added.
To encourage participation, the organiser will provide free training sessions and programming software for each entrant. 'So if nothing else comes out of all this, you at least get some training which will help you in the future. You get free software which will help you to do programming,' Mr Alani said.
'The opportunity is there, the imagination is there, have some fun and enjoy it. There is really nothing much to lose other than to win.'
Hong Kong and Singapore flew the flag for Asia last year, finishing in the top-12 in the finals in Brazil.
