News
Broad Support for Ogreenizate! as the Team Prepares for Imagine Cup Finals
July 3rd, 2008 – Ogreenizate!, the student team that will represent Slovenia at the Imagine Cup finals in Paris is ready to face fierce global competition. The team is supported by Microsoft’s Slovenian subsidiary as well as Mobitel and HERMES SoftLab, two leading IT and communication companies that provided the team with material and knowledge support. The Ogreenizate! team will showcase its social network that encourages and enables its members to choose environment-friendly products. Sustainable environment is the theme of Imagine Cup 2008 where 200,000 participating students competed in nine categories enabling them to express and realize their technology skills and creative energy.
Slovenian representatives at the Imagine Cup 2008 world finals are already prepared to leave for Paris, where a total of 370 students representing 124 teams from 61 different countries and regions will compete July 3-8. Slovenian team, Ogreenizate!, will compete in the Software Design category and received support from Microsoft’s Slovenian subsidiary as well as Mobitel and HERMES SoftLab. Both companies donated hardware, services and direct support to help the students develop and showcase their project.
»We are extremely pleased that other companies see the potential in the Ogreenizate! team and chose to support them this year,« said Matej Potokar, General Manager, Microsoft Slovenia. »These are the students with the courage and the skills to change the world on a global level. And we wish them all the luck in achieving this goal.«
Gregor Smrekar, HERMES SoftLaba CEO: »HERMES SoftLab has been helping and supporting young people and their IT projects for several years. In addition to the Slovenian team, we also financially supported the Serbian team that will also participate in the Imagine Cup 2008 finals. We believe that these projects that emphasize creative IT solutions add value to the entire industry and give an opportunity to the young to promote their ideas on the global market with the help of IT companies.«
Danilo Tomšič, Sales Manager, Mobitel: »We decided to work with the Slovenian team and equipped them with the latest communications solutions by Mobitel. These include megabit Instant Internet and M:Stik services as well as powerful handsets that will be used as a part of the solution in Paris. We encourage such projects by young people and are glad to support them in their efforts.«
The Ogreenizate! team was formed by the students from the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Ljubljana. Team members – Domen Grabec, Anže Furlan, Jernej Gorički and Matjaž Horvat – worked with their mentor, Martin Breskvar, to imagine and develop a social network that encourages and helps the network members to choose environmentally friendly products and solutions. Social network members will gradually create a database of environmentally friendly products. By purchasing these products, members will receive »credits« that can be used to personalize and customize their profiles. Each product makes the members a certain amount of credits that can be used to change their profiles or the landscape that characterizes their profile. The solution is based on Microsoft Silverlight technologies and works in different web browsers.
Imagine Cup is a leading global student competition and in 2008 over 200,000 students from over 100 countries and regions in the world registered to compete. This year’s challenge is “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.”. Competitors can participate in nine categories to best express and realize their technology skills and creative energy. Through the competition Microsoft is promoting students’ creativity and technology skills by enabling them to use their vision and knowledge to find answers to real-life issues.
In addition to software design, the students also compete in Embedded Development and Game Development categories. Skills challenges include »Project Hoshimi« Programming Battle where students battle through their coding skills and algorithmic ability. Other skills challenges include IT Challenge and Algorithm categories. Digital Arts students have the ability to compete in Photography, Short Film and Interface Design categories.
This year, Microsoft has also added special achievement awards in different categories that include Interoperability Award, Windows Live Award, Accessible Technology Award and Rural Innovation Award for a solution that contributes toward a more sustainable environment and best helps promote the social and economic growth of underserved populations in developing countries.