Microsoft Awards Imagine Cup 2006 Lankan winners

The ingenuity and creativity of Sri Lanka's next generation of IT experts came to the fore at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2006, with the team from the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa walking away with a rare opportunity to showcase their skills in the international arena.

A year of intense competition that spanned across universities in Sri Lanka and fused technological expertise with artistic spirit came to an end when the five finalists presented their projects for live judging during the awards ceremony, at the Taj Samudra Hotel.

Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne (Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka) crowned Yasith Perera, Shanaka Perera, Prasad Sampath Wickramasinghe and M.A. Chathurika Sandarenu (all from the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa), the national winners of the second annual Imagine Cup student technology competition.

The winning team 'Arunalu' impressed the judges with a project titled 'Panchayudha', which is designed to organise the clinic-related activities of expectant women and mothers with infants. This application promises to introduce a mechanism for keeping information such as vaccination schedules, prescriptions, treatment and clinic records visible to all the relevant people.

The team will now have the coveted opportunity of taking wing to Delhi, India on an all expense paid trip during which they will go head to head with their international peers at the Imagine Cup Global Championship. The worldwide winner in the Software Design Invitational stands the chance of winning a grand cash prize of USD 25,000 at the finale.

Attending the global championship also provides an extraordinary opportunity for students to network and interact with their contemporaries from all around the world, thereby making contacts that will hold them in good stead into the future.