The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Overview
Microsoft will be hosting a world-wide student programming contest, called the Microsoft Imagine
Cup – sponsored by Microsoft (we will potentially have other sponsors as well). The purpose of
the competition is to highlight and reward excellence in the field of student programming. This
year (2003) the focus is students working with Web Services and .NET to create a commercially
viable or socially responsible product specification and prototype. The following number of teams
will be coming from each region, 12 teams total:
US – 2
Canada – 1
Latin America – 1
Australia – 1
APAC (including India) – 3
EMEA – 4
The Imagine Cup will be hosted at:
TechEd Europe
Barcelona, Spain
June 30-July 4, 2003.
Students will be flown to the event location, stay in a hotel near the conference, and be given fullconference badges for the technical conference (including keynotes).
Competition Eligibility
Participating teams must be selected by local regions. Each region will host an event or
competition that will help them select the team they will send to the Imagine Cup. Regions will
fund the T&E for their representative teams to participate in the world finals.
Teams will be selected and notified of their entrance to the Imagine Cup by May 15, 2003.
Challenge Guidelines
The Imagine Cup will be looking for the following elements in each team’s entry:
Contest Entry Requirements
Design Specification
 Teams must submit a written specification that describes the architecture
of the entire application, including objects, hierarchies, etc.
 The specification should include user scenarios and requirements
(hardware, software, etc).
 The specification will be in English.
Application Design Elements
 Participating teams must create and publish at least 2 Web Services on
separate Web servers.
 There must be a client application that consumes Web Services.
 Contest entry must include a data design and storage element.
The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Client Application
 The client must incorporate UI elements that enable users to interact with
the Web Services created.
 The client must consume at least the two self-developed Web Services
described above.
 Clients may and are encouraged to consume other, existing Web Services.
The participating team is responsible for seeking relevant permissions and
rights to use other external web services.
Demonstration Requirements
 Teams will be given 20 minutes to present their projects.
 Presentation should include a discussion of the purpose/benefit of the
project, and the architecture of the contest entry.
 Presentations must be made in English.
Technical Requirements
Web servers may be public, institution-owned (a University, for example), or self-owned.
Contest entries will be judged in part on their abilities to showcase the Windows platform and the
.NET Framework. (See Judging Criteria section)
Recommended Server platforms:
 Web Services are served from a machine running Windows 2000 Server,
Windows 2003 Server, and the corresponding versions of IIS.
 Web Servers running the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 or 1.1 beta.
Recommended Database technology and platforms
 ADO.NET
 Microsoft Access
 SQL Server 2000
Recommended Development Tools:
 Web Matrix
 Visual Studio .NET
Recommended Client Application designs:
 A PC application
 A WebForms application (ASP.NET)
 A mobile device client (WAP or Mobile Explorer, emulators accepted)
 A WinForms application
Recommended platform for running UI Client(s):
 Windows XP (all versions)
 Pocket PC 2002
 Windows CE.NET
The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Machines Provided:
PCs will be provided to support the contest entries. These machines currently have the following
configuration:
Processor
Chipset
System Bus
Memory
Graphics
Hard Drive
Audio
Communications
Ports
Operating System
Intel Pentium 4, 1.6Ghz.
Intel 845MP
400MHz front side
512 mb (supports up to 1024mb)
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32mb 4X AGP
30gb
ESS 1980 + 1921 Audio Chipset
Integrated 10/100 network card, wireless available
on external cards
2 USB, 1 Parallel, 1 PS/2 (with Y adapter), VGA Composite
Video, RJ11, RJ45, IEEE 1394,
Mic-in, SPDIF-Out, Headphone Jack, Line-in
As needed
Each team will be provided with one PC to run their client application. A Microsoft representative
from each region will be required to provide specifications for the individual team PC, and the
regions will be required to bring and install all required software for their respective teams.
There will be 2 PCs available to each team as web servers to host the two required Web Services.
These PCs will be shared amongst all 12 teams. The PCs available will have the identical
configuration described above, and will have English Windows 2003 Server installed on them. If a
team’s contest entry requires a different configuration for hosting their web services (Linux, Unix,
Windows 2000 Server, for example), the teams or the regions should be responsible for providing
their own PC for hosting their web services.
Additional hardware, such as Pocket PCs, may be provided by the regions if their team would
benefit from having that hardware available. Otherwise, any additionally required hardware must
be provided by the teams themselves.
Event
Students will present their entries at a pre-conference session on June 30 at TechEd in Barcelona.
Judging will take place at this event. Demonstrations will be done in the form of onstage
presentations (approx 20 min) for the panel of judges. Presentations and materials will be in
English. The top three finalists will be chosen at this event. A reception/party for all participants
will follow.
On July 1, during TechEd’s opening keynote speech, the three finalist teams will be announced
and presented on stage, the winner will be chosen and awards will be given during the keynote
speech.
All entrants to the Imagine Cup should be aware of the judging criteria being used (see below).
The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Judging Considerations
The worldwide contest judging criteria is a follows:
Judging of submissions will be based on  Innovation and Creativity - 25%
 Implementation - 25%
 Social Responsibility OR Commercial Viability – 25%
 Overall Presentation – 25%
Innovation & Creativity
A more original and creative application will receive a higher score in this section. The judges will
be looking for breakthrough thinking and extraordinary ideas that may make a difference in the
real world.
Implementation of .NET and Web Services
Judges will be looking for those entries that take excellent advantage of the support for Web
Services in .NET, the Windows platform, and the .NET Framework. Teams will be evaluated on
how their idea is translated from thoughts to reality in terms of architecture, objects and
hierarchies.
Social Responsibility OR Commercial Viability
A higher score will be given to those projects that are commercial in nature and demonstrate
practical application in the team’s chosen marketplace. Alternately, projects that address a social
need will be given the same consideration.
Overall Presentation
Just having a technically superior application will not be enough. Equally important is the style
and creativity of the team in presenting their ideas and sharing their thinking on the potential of
the application.
ALL ENTRANTS SHOULD REVIEW THE JUDGING CRITERIA
Judges
Judges will come from Microsoft, Academia, and from selected corporate attendees of TechEd
Europe. The population of the judges will represent the global nature of the student teams
participating.
The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Prizes
1st Place: $25,000 to be split equally among student team members
2nd Place: $15,000 to be split equally among student team members
3rd Place: $10,000 to be split equally among student team members
In addition, the Imagine Cup will be sent back with the teams for display at their University, to be
handed over to the winning team again in 2004. Individuals will also receive a smaller version of
the cup they can keep.
All participants will receive a gift – value $150-200 per student (i.e. watch, pocket PC).
An undetermined award will be given to optional faculty advisors. In addition, a student team or
faculty recommended department of the teams’ universities will get a free MSDNAA membership.
The faculty advisor of the winning team may also get some kind of grant money – tbd.
Note: Budget for final prizes will come from PMG. Distribution of prize will be done by the region
that sent the winning team – this region will be reimbursed by PMG. This is done to simplify the
tax issues surrounding prize distribution.
Legal
Microsoft will retain the right to use source code and final projects for display, advertising, and
promotion of this and future contests only (no resale ability). Students will retain ownership of
code. Exact legal terms will be made available in the contest Terms and Conditions document.
No purchase is required to enter this contest.
Publicity
Plan tbd. Morris will work with local ADE and regional managers to generate the global PR plan.
The Imagine Cup – sponsored by Microsoft
Challenges from other regions:
Note: This information is being given to the regions for informational purposes only. This
information is NOT intended for the regional student teams. The intent is to help the regions in
defining their own contests and to ensure students create projects that will compete fairly with
other teams from around the world.
The students entering from Singapore were given the following challenge.
Web Services Element
 Option 1: Participating teams must publish at least 2 Web Services on
separate Web servers. The web servers can be any mixture of public
hosts, institution-owned or self-owned web servers. However, do note that
the web server(s) must have the Microsoft .Net Framework installed in
order to host the web services.
 Option 2: Publish a smart client that consumes Web Services. (e.g. PDA
Smart Client that can show details of a particular animal species and their
feeding time, names etc at the zoo as the user moves from cage to cage
or Handheld Device Smart Client that shows the user which of his/her
friends are nearby)
 Option 3: Do both Option 1 and Option 2
UI Element
 Option 1: The competition solution must include at least one UI element,
either it be Web forms, a mobile device (WAP and/or Mobile Explorer
emulators), or a Winform application. The GUI must consume at least two
self-developed Web Services from separate Web servers. Creative use of
other web services is encouraged as long as at least 2 of those used are
self-developed.
 Option 2: The solution should include a smart client on a mobile device
(e.g. handphone, PDA) which consumes at least 1 web service. The smart
client should have a GUI that is easy to use.
 Option 3: Do both Option 1 and Option 2
Other requirements
The participating team is responsible for seeking relevant permissions and
rights to use (or “consume”) other external web services.
There must be data stored and retrieved from a Microsoft SQL Server 2000
database using ADO.NET.
The UI must support, at a minimal, the English language.