I'm sure that by now many of you will probably already have seen the final results from this year's Imagine Cup competition which was bigger and even better than ever with over 100,000 students from over 100 countries entering and 344 students from 65 countries battling it out last week in Seoul at the Worldwide Finals.  

The standard of entries this year was incredible and congratulations should go to all finalists however I'd particularly like to recognise the 10 Western European teams in the Software Design competition including Austria and Ireland who made it to the final six and the Netherlands who made it to the final 12 plus also Ireland who finished second in the Web Development competition and Austria who took first place in Interface Design! 

You can check out all the results on the Imaigne Cup Virtual Press Center at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/imaginecup/default.mspx, check out video cast interviews with many of the teams on Channel 8 at http://www.channel8.com plus my photos are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/47972197@N00/

We're now looking forward to the Imagine Cup 2008 which is going to challenge students to use technology to enable a more sustainable environment for all and the finals will be returning to Europe and to Paris next July! So good luck to all European teams for next year :)   

Well it’s been over a year since I last blogged…. and I guess my only excuse is the fact that my last post coincided with moving to a new role within Microsoft, still based in Reading and in the Academic Developer team, but working in the Europe, Middle East & Africa regional team responsible for over 100+ countries. It’s been an incredible year working closely with the EMEA ADEs to better understand their local academic landscapes and also travelling to and meeting students from all four corners of the region.

I’m just back from a trip to the Imagine Cup 2006 Worldwide Finals in India which are a “bit like the Olympics for Geeks” to use a quote from Jonas from the Norwegian team. And what better time to resurrect my blog especially as EMEA walked away with a great share of this year’s trophies ;) This was my fourth Imagine Cup finals and it’s amazing to see how the competition has grown since its humble beginnings and since Team Mercury from the University of Hull finished third equal back at Tech.Ed Barcelona in 2003. I’m still blown away by the talent, hard work and innovative ideas demonstrated by the students from right around the world and all of the competitors, finalists and winners should be commended including:

• Italy and Norway who took first and third place in the Software Design competition;
• Poland who took all three places in the Algorithm category;
• Austria, Romania and France who took the first three places in the IT category;
• Poland who took second place in the Short Film category and;
• France, the Republic of Serbia and France who took the first three places in the Project Hoshimi programming battle.
• Plus China, Croatia and Germany who have been i