The winners of Microsoft Imagine Cup Jordan 2011 showcase incredible talent

Under the Patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of El Hassan Science City and the Royal Scientific Society, Microsoft Jordan in collaboration with the Jordan University for Science and Technology (JUST) and El Hassan Science City announced the winning team of the Imagine Cup Jordan 2011 competition who will go on to represent the Kingdom at the Imagine Cup 2011 worldwide finals in New York in July. HRH Princes Sumaya presented the awards to the winning team and the five runners-up. Zain Jordan is the Platinum Sponsor of the Imagine Cup 2011 Jordan.

HRH Prince Sumaya bint El Hassan, said: “Imagination is God’s greatest gift to humanity. With it we can conjure up the world in which we wish to live. We can begin our journey from challenge to creativity. The Imagination Cup is a wonderful encouragement for the creative gifts of our talented young people. It joins them with young innovators from around the world in a quest to solve common challenges – the real issues of the age that have nothing to do with ideology or with imagined divisions.

She added: “The importance of this competition stems from the necessity to keep Jordan’s youth fully engaged in the planning of a bright future for Jordan in order to achieve the goal of comprehensive and sustainable development in these challenging times.”

The winning team, Oasys, is made up of students from the German Jordanian University, Princess Sumaya University, and Petra University who created a system that will allow people with 4-point disability (Quadriplegia) to control the computer, move the mouse, and type using an infrared device and a Wii-mote. Team members are Mohammad Azzam, Monir Abu-Hilal, Hani Abu-Huwaij, and advisor Mohammad Saleh.

The second award goes to the Imaginists team, made up of students from Petra University who also developed a system that will allow people with 4-point disability (Quadriplegia) to control the computer, move the mouse and type using a color patch. Team members are Yaser Saleh, Mosab Aboulkhair, Sara Abood, Maysa Jabali and advisor Dr Abdelkareem Al-Banna.

The third award goes to KinectSL, made up of students from JUST, who developed a system that can translate sign language from hand gestures into Arabic or English and pronounce it. Team members are Hosam Irshaid, Hamza Kofahi, Ibrahim Ala’ali, and advisors Dr Natheer Khasawneh and Dr Mohammad Fraiwan.

Professor Ahed Wahadneh, JUST acting president stated, “We are pleased to host and organize Imagine Cup 2011 Jordan, which falls in line with JUST’s philosophy of supporting students and nurturing creativity. Microsoft Imagine Cup is one of the primary technology competitions open to college students from all around the globe. We are pleased with the level of the winning projects and wish them the best of luck in representing Jordan in New York.”

Husni Khuffash, Country Manager of Microsoft Jordan, stated “It is a great honor to see some of Jordan’s most talented and tech-savvy students compete in one of the world’s most prestigious technology competitions. Through this competition, we hope to see Jordan’s IT sector compete across the globe and we look forward to seeing our students compete with the best of the best at the worldwide finals. This year, we are witnessing incredible university students solve some of the world’s toughest challenges by designing projects to mimic the creation of real business ideas and in return transform their ideas into a reality.”

Muhammad Arrabi, Developer and Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Jordan, stated, “Now in its seventh year, the Imagine Cup Jordan is undeniably Jordan’s major student technology competition that challenges students to compete globally and become world class technology producers. The competition helps students think about real problems in Jordan and the world and learn to map technology solutions to solve them.”

This year’s Imagine Cup competition tracks include Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Design, Digital Media, Windows Phone 7, Interoperability Challenge, IT Challenge, Orchard Challenge, & Windows 7 Touch Challenge.

Organized by El Hassan Science City and in parallel with the Digital Media track, the winners of the Drivers of Change Video Competition were also announced at today’s awards ceremony. The objective of the competition was to produce a four-minute video that identifies what is shaping the future of Jordan.

HRH Princess Sumaya said: “The Drivers of Change Video Competition provides young people with an incentive to map our current challenged world and to set goals for a brighter future. Together we CAN imagine a better future and united we WILL make it a reality.”

Seren Shahin, Director of The National Campaign for the Drivers of Change, emphasized that “the competition reflects the spirit of the campaign; importance of identifying the drivers of change, power of knowledge and active citizenship.”

The top three entries were chosen from Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) "Louis Salman and Ehab AlAtaibi", German Jordanian University (GJU) "Malik Abu Al-Zait and Anton Thabaine", and Mutah University "Mohammad Al-Sarayrah, Zakariah Salhab and Nezar Al-Sarayrah". The themes of the winning entries were Poverty, Energy and the Role of the Local Radio Stations.

The National Campaign for the Drivers of Change was launched under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II, and as an initiative by HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan. The Campaign is a Royal Scientific Society initiative under the umbrella of El Hassan Science City. 

The Imagine Cup and its tracks encourage all programmers, designers, and technologists to rise to the challenges that the United Nations has identified, such as reducing poverty and providing universal primary education, and use the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as their inspiration.

There are multiple rounds before getting to the finals and each country holds a competition round for the software track. In Jordan, approximately 377 students from 16 universities participated in the Imagine Cup Jordan for the software track.

All Imagine Cup competitors received access to free software programs from an extended list of 83 Microsoft software titles, software design technologies that they used while creating their projects, and exclusive learning resources through the Microsoft IT Academy Program. The competitors will enroll in Microsoft's business skill training courses, which are available at the Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC).