Microsoft bares Phl winners of Imagine Cup

MANILA, Philippines - Microsoft Philippines, in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) has announced the three winning teams of the Imagine Cup Philippine Finals.

Imagine Cup, currently on its 12th year, is the world’s premier student technology competition which provides students across all disciplines with the opportunity to use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications, games and solutions that solve the toughest problems in the world today.

During the finals held at Casa Blanca in Intramuros, Manila, three teams were declared winners representing each category — Games, Innovation, and World Citizenship. The winning teams received P50,000 and BizSpark membership, and will represent the Philippines in the Asian finals.

Team Tala, winner of the World Citizenship category, presented ReLink — an app that will help people sell their pre-loved belongings instead of throwing them away. Team Animus topped the Games category with FitPals, an app that combined fitness and play and utilized the power of Xbox Kinect to enable children to remain active. Team PewPew conquered the Innovation category by adding a touch of personalization to storytelling with Funimals, an app that generates stories based on pictures selected by children.

Included in the roster of judges that selected the winning solutions were lawyer Marco Sardillo III (Intramuros administrator), Monchito Ibrahim (DOST-ICTO industry development director), Bettina Quimson (DOST-ICTO e-Society Group director), Anthony Esporlas (Smart product manager), Paul Pajo (Smart senior developer evangelist), and Earljohn Hidalgo (Vibal Group chief technology officer).

“We are very proud of all the contestants and are impressed with the solutions that were presented during the finals. We hope that Imagine Cup serves as a platform that will encourage more Filipino youth to aspire to build that next big innovation that could positively impact the lives of the Filipino people,” said Alvin Gendrano, director of Microsoft Philippines’ Developer and Platform Group.

Team Hiraya from the Philippines also won first place in the Innovation Category of the Worldwide Imagine Cup 2014 Online User Experience Challenge. The team’s project unified automated information from trains, buses, and taxis to enable users to find the best available transportation options when commuting.

“Technology has the ability to improve the way we do things. We are proud to be part of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup because it has given us the channel to transform our passions into opportunities to create a lasting impact in our community. We hope that Imagine cup inspires Filipino youth who are passionate about technology to do the same,” said Gabriel Eric Villanueva, winner of the Worldwide Imagine Cup Online User Experience Challenge for the Innovation Category.

More than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in Imagine Cup over the past 10 years. To date, over 1,000 young Filipinos have been given the opportunity to transform their ideas into wonderful apps through this prestigious competition.

Imagine Cup was made possible with the help of SmartDevNet and the Intramuros Administration. To learn more about the Imagine Cup. visit www.imaginecup.com.