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Imagine a world where the best and brightest students endeavor to apply technology in a coordinated effort to solve some of the world’s greatest social challenges. Working in conjunction with the United Nations, Microsoft has issued a call to action for all students worldwide to leverage the full resources of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Student Competition combined with their technical abilities to positively impact the 8 United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The Competitions

Software Design Invitational
The SDI is an innovation competition – it’s about motivating students to take their knowledge and skills, combined with their passion and apply them outside of the classroom. Microsoft is empowering you to help your technology students to flex their innovation muscle in the framework of a high energy global competition that provides students with the resources and motivation to become entrepreneurs changing the world. You can leverage the SDI as a way to give your students the ability to remove the walls around a classroom assignment or project and allow them to evolve into full scale innovators and entrepreneurs.

Game Design Invitational
In the Game Development invitational, students face the ultimate test of their creative and technical skills as they create a game that is not only entertaining but has a social message relating to the United Nations Millennium Goals. Using Microsoft's ground-breaking new XNA Game Studio Express, competing students from around the world have the chance to gain international exposure for their games.

Project Profiles

SDI Projects

  • CarbonCart (video)
    Seattle Pacific University
    Developed by three freshmen and a junior at Seattle Pacific University, CarbonCart.com is an eco-conscious e-commerce site carrying online retail giant Amazon.com’s entire product inventory that allows consumers to carbon neutralize their internet shopping. By placing their orders for Amazon products through CarbonCart.com, consumers can purchase carbon credits to pay for renewable energy initiatives, reforestation or energy efficiency projects that offset the carbon dioxide generated in the shipping of their purchases.

  • Footprint (video)
    Team Iowa: University of Iowa
    The brainchild of Team Iowa, two Computer Science seniors from the University of Iowa, Footprint allows people to calculate the power consumption and carbon emissions of the products and appliances they use daily based on average usage. The application is available as a desktop download and on the web as Footprint Online. Footprint’s index is updated automatically with new products as they come onto the market and via user submissions to ensure users always have the latest, most up-to-date information at their fingertips; meanwhile Footprint Online utilizes the social dimensions of the web to allow people to see how their usage stacks up against others, pinpointing ways for them to conserve on energy and reduce their environmental impact.

  • Reactivity (video)
    Team Sparx: Rochester Institute of Technology
    Sparx, from a quartet of Rochester Institute of Technology Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering sophomores and juniors, harnesses Microsoft XML web services to program and configure a network of sensors to take readings of environmental variables like AC current, temperature, humidity, light, sound, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and motion. Users can capture individual sensor readings by connecting to the appropriate network node; meanwhile data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server for future study and analysis. The sensors are also programmable and accessible via cell phone using a .NET device application developed on the .NET Compact Framework.

  • Lemon Sketch (video)
    Iced Team Lemon: Carnegie Mellon University, College of William & Mary and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
    Sparx, from a quartet of Rochester Institute of Technology Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering sophomores and juniors, harnesses Microsoft XML web services to program and configure a network of sensors to take readings of environmental variables like AC current, temperature, humidity, light, sound, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and motion. Users can capture individual sensor readings by connecting to the appropriate network node; meanwhile data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server for future study and analysis. The sensors are also programmable and accessible via cell phone using a .NET device application developed on the .NET Compact Framework.

  • Your Friends in Recycling
    BattleCodeOSU: Oklahoma State University
    Your Friends in Recycling, from BattleCodeOSU, a duo of recent Oklahoma State University students, utilizes .NET, SQL Server, Silverlight, Microsoft Virtual Earth, XML and ASP technologies to bring social networking to the arena of recycling in a web 2.0 online service through which eco-aware users can locate recycling resources and connect with like-minded individuals to collaborate on recycling projects.

  • Carbon Footprint Calculator (video)
    CU GameDev: University of Colorado at Boulder
    The Carbon Footprint Calculator, devised by CU GameDev, a trio of CU Boulder Computer Science seniors, does exactly what it says on the label: calculates people’s carbon footprint based on information they input about their daily activities. The program is intended to drive awareness of the importance of carbon footprints. By design, the Carbon Footprint Calculator is accessible as a Windows Sidebar gadget on the PC desktop and an application in FaceBook, Windows Live services, MySpace, Blogger, Windows Live Spaces plus other web sites (synchronizing in each case with the same database), so it is always front and center for users.

  • GotARide (video)
    Gridlock Guys: California State University at Long Beach
    With transportation composing 28% of US energy consumption in 2006 but mass transit not always a cost-effective or feasible near-term option, California State University at Long Beach’s four Grid Lock Guys have come up with a software program that offers a way to reduce fuel consumption from transportation when public transit is not available. GotARide is a Facebook application using the .NET Framework, Silverlight, ASP.NET, XML Web Services, SQL Server, Facebook SDK and a web map service that allows prospective ride-sharers to find an automatic match with other carpoolers based on their commute routes and schedules.

Game Development Finalists

  • Ecocism
    Ligersoft: The George Washington University
    Designed by Ligersoft, a duo of George Washington University roommates, expressly for Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox 360, Ecocism is a thought-provoking one-of-a-kind hybrid of arcade-style shoot-em-up and real-time strategy that takes place in a future dystopia in which resources have been squandered and ravenous energy-guzzling machines run amok rendering the earth’s surface an “uninhabitable wasteland”. Human survivors have been forced to retreat underground to the “Colony”! The game demands that players engage in reasoned strategizing, husbanding their resources and thinking carefully about the future impact of decisions they make now in order to restore the environment and make the earth’s surface habitable again, while keeping their wits about them to fend off onslaughts from enemy combatants.

  • Clean the World
    CTW: California State University, Fullerton
    Cleaning supplies become weapons in Clean the World, an eco-conscious game developed by a team of students from California State University, Fullerton. Wielding their virtual cleaning agents, players assume the mantle of a young boy who must rid the world of harmful pollutants in order to spare his father’s life and save the world from impending extinction.

  • LATROP
    The Green Pill: California State University, Fullerton
    The brainchild of a quintet of students from California State University, Fullerton, LATROP, standing for Last Attempt to Save Our Planet, is a multi-level game that challenges players to race against the clock to get soda cans in a recycling bin and log a high score. There are some 20 different “mind-bending” levels to navigate and gamers can compete with friends in two-player mode to determine the best recycler.