Imagine Cup 2016 China Final Event Report

Imagine Cup 2016 China Final Event Report

The Imagine Cup 2016 China Final Event was successfully held in Sanya, Hainan Province on Apr. 27-28. As the largest Imagine Cup China Finals in recent years, it has embraced 450+ attendees including 120 Imagine Cup finalists and their mentors from 22 universities in 15 cities, 20+ experienced judges from Hardware, Software, Mobile Internet, Gaming, Maker and VC industries, 140 YouthSpark Live teachers and student representatives, 30 Microsoft Student Partners, 30+ startup representatives, and tens of honorable government and industry leads from Beijing, Hainan, Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Guizhou, and Jilin Province.

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Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. It has been held in China for 13 years with more than 220,000 students participated in the competition. 

This is the first time we land Imagine Cup China Final event in Hainan. Thanks to the great cooperation with Hainan Provincial Government, Sanya Municipal Government, Hainan IITB, Hainan Education Department, Sanya SIIT Bureau, Haitang Bay Management Committee, etc., all our attendees had a memorable experience in the beautiful coastal city. In addition to Imagine Cup China Finals, we also leveraged this great opportunity to host the YouthSpark Live Youth Forum and Entrepreneurship & Innovation Dialogue, as well as the MSP Annual Summit at the same time to build more solid engagement framework with youth.

InjectDNA(WITH CHINA INNOVATION);

Innovation is the keyword in the 2-day event. Philippe Rogge, Microsoft Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in China, and Srikanth Raju, GM of GCR Developer Experience & Evangelism (DX) attended opening ceremony and delivered keynote speech on how Microsoft empowers Chinese youth to innovate with advanced technology on this world-wide platform, and reflected on the 13-year journey of Imagine Cup in China, also showcased how Microsoft has been encouraging young people innovation and helping youth achieve success.

Baiqing Li, Vice Mayor of Sanya gave the welcome speech, emphasized the importance of collaborating with Microsoft in nurturing local talents, strengthening technology innovation and industrial upgrading and encouraged young students to keep learning, keep thinking, and keep innovating. 

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Following the keynote speeches, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Dialogue was held to help youth people gain a better understanding of entrepreneurship & innovation. Michelle Rong, Senior Director of Audience Marketing participated in the dialogue together with the government officer from Hainan IITB, representatives from Tourism and Cultural industries, VC, startup company and student entrepreneurs. 

<03插入照片Panel Discussion全景和Michelle的特写照片>

InjectDNA (CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY);

Imagine Cup China Final Event is a great opportunity to showcase our cutting edge technology to all the attendees especially to the industry and local government. Microsoft Technology Booths were set up by DX Technical Evangelists to demonstrate the fresh Microsoft technologies including Azure, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Machine Learning, More Personal Computing (MPC), Artificial Intelligence(AI), Cognitive Service, and many cool stuff from Windows 10, UWP and amazing devices. 

In these scenario-based demonstrations, we integrated our cool technology with partner solutions to better deliver Microsoft unique values in many industries: HealthCare, Tourism, Education, Manufacturing, and Government Management, etc. The exhibition received high recognition from the government as well as event attendees.  

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InjectDNA(PASSION & CREATIVITY);

In total 4500 students across China registered for Imagine Cup 2016. 1379 teams advanced to Round II, and 41 of them entered the Semi-Finals. In April, the best 21 teams stood out of all the competitors to attend the final rivalry in Sanya. 

It is noticeable that students are becoming more sensitive to the trend of new technology, more mature in business development and more concerned of today’s social problems:

First, the hottest technologies today including Big Data, VR, Cloud Service, Machine Learning and IoT are widely applied to student projects this year. Students are not limited to the knowledge in textbooks. Instead, they have been broadening their eyes to keep pace with the new trend of technology. For instance, the first-place winner in World Citizenship category is an app powered by Azure and supported by Microsoft Cognitive Service.

Second, in the era of mass entrepreneurship, students have demonstrated their potential in driving successful business. In addition to their pursuit of technology innovation, they have also been thinking about how to appeal to the demand of the market. In their booth area, students have displayed all kinds of cute mascots, souvenirs and accessories of their projects, which makes their apps/games more appealing and popular.

Third, it is remarkable that students have shown a strong sense of social responsibility and aspiration to make the world a better place. Solitary senior people, blind people, deaf/mute people, and other disadvantaged groups are on the list of their top concerns. In alignment with the spirit of Imagine Cup, Chinese student developers have proved that they can solve social problems with technology.

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After the one-day competition, the E-chat Social Gloves from Fuzhou University, Legendary Monster from Shanghai Jiaotong University and BoneyCare jointly developed by students from Northeast University, Beijing Normal University and UC Berkeley stood out from numerous projects and won the first places under the three categories of Innovation, Games and World Citizenship respectively.

E-chat Social Gloves (Innovation): E-chat can help deaf-mute people easily communicate with normal people. The gloves can translate the sign language of deaf/mute people into voice signal; in the meanwhile, the voice signal from normal people can be translated into sign language that can be easily recognized by deaf-mute person.

BoneyCare (World Citizenship): The 1st stammer (stutter) adjunctive diagnosis and treatment app for end users, aiming at helping people with stammering problems to improve their confidence and speaking quality and providing help and customized suggestions for them.

Legendary Monster (Games): Legendary Monster is a 2D game based on the platform of Windows 10 system. The player uses the gravity sensor to manipulate the character, and control the usage of the time to complete the game. It tells an escape story of a group of tiny viruses and their exploration of suitable planets for themselves based on their various characteristics.

For all the China Finals student projects, please click here.

<06插入照片：赵立威讲话，点评，颁奖，奖杯，喜悦等>

InjectDNA(FAITH);

Microsoft Student Partners (MSP) were highly involved from the very beginning of the Imagine Cup Competition by broadly spreading Microsoft Student Program messages and penetrating Microsoft technology on campus. As a group of students with great passion and faith for Microsoft technologies, MSPs were considered as extended evangelist team on campus. This year, the 30 most outstanding MSPs were invited from 17 provinces to attend the Imagine Cup China Final Event, as well as the China MSP Annual Summit.

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MSPs took the role of student journalists during the event. They took 2000+ amazing pictures, interviewed 24 teams, and produced 30 video materials at the length of 192 minutes. MSPs also made great contribution to social amplification by producing 92k impressions on Weibo.

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InjectDNA(INFLUENCE);

Imagine Cup China Final drew great attention from media and the industry. By leveraging the state media, portal media, industrial media and we-media, we increased public attention and appeal of Imagine Cup among Chinese youngsters, parents, educational organizations and relevant government agencies, to bring awareness to Microsoft’s dedication in empowering innovation in China, especially the innovation of Chinese young people.

<09插入媒体截屏和URL，如果图像质量低请参考我转发给你的Huili Wang的邮件>韩恕，02图分三个零部件，你需要拼一下

More importantly, Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final applied Live Webcasting for the first time. As the cooperating media, hinews.cn provided multiplatform reporting support, including live webcasting, and special report the event. According to statistics, the number of watching the live video reached 110,000 times, and the number of news browsing is more than 963,000 times.

Media Clippings

GMW Education: Condensing Technology and Innovating Youth Power, Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final Concluded

ChinaNews.com: Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final was Held in Sanya with the Outstanding Performances of Young Makers

XINHUA.NET: Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final was Held in Sanya

China.com: Condensing Technology and Innovating Youth Power, Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final Concluded

Hainan.net: Social Gloves for Disabled won Best Innovation Award in 2016 Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final

iFeng: Stuttering Adjuvant Therapy APP BoneyCare Won Outstanding Winner in Microsoft Imagine Cup

SINA: Microsoft Imagine Cup Encouraging Students to Technology Innovation, 3 Teams will represent China for World Champion

SOHU: Vice Mayor of Sanya: Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final Provides Opportunities for Transformation of Sanya 

NetEase: 2016 Microsoft Imagine Cup China Final Successfully Concluded with Providing IT Professionals to Hainan

Ifanr:  Microsoft Imagine Cup Continues to Inherit Code, Ideal and Love

WPDANG: Microsoft Imagine Cup: What is Innovation when Fresh Meat Met the Most Wonderful Age of Technology

Regarding Microsoft-owned platforms, we fully leveraged our 1st party WeChat and Weibo to build the comprehensive messages on how Imagine Cup can truly inspire the imagination and innovation of Chinese young people, we got 2268 engagement and 1.9M impressions on Apr. 27-28.

Meet young geeks in Imagine Cup 2016

Imagine Cup 2016 Day 1 recap

Imagine Cup 2016 Day 2 recap

Share(THE MOMENT);

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选取的一些学生网上发言：

My eyes are filled with tears watching the story of this indie game developer. I see Big A in him. Holding on to perfection in solitude, no wonder he won!

Spotted our boss from Microduino at the student showcase. Thanks @ImagineCup for bringing creativity to life, and giving every Maker/Tech enthusiast a chance to join this epic student technology carnival!

Team Reflection started competing with 1379 teams, made it in to the China Finals, and won the Top Prize for Games! All the participants are amazing, it’s an honor to compete with them! We look forward to the future of game development in China! @ImagineCup

Imagine Cup has given us such a perfect platform to learn and such an amazing vacation! Hope we can go even further! We will definitely come back again! @ImagineCup

My weibo name hasn’t changed since I added MSP to it in 2014. I’m an MSP in many occasions, it’s all coming to an end next year, I still have one more dream yet to realize.

Start(THE FUTURE);

Imagine Cup is a commitment from Microsoft to China young people, is our continuous investment to innovation, is a spirit to make dreams of young people come true.

The Imagine Cup 2016 China Finals is never the end of the story. On the contrary, it means the beginning of the journey, and a brand new chapter for Microsoft on its way to empower student developers and youth in China.

Let’s move on!

Acknowledgement 

Special thanks to the event V-team and below colleagues for your dedication and contribution to Imagine Cup China Final Event and our great cross boundary collaboration. We couldn’t have made such a success without you!

Executive Leads: Philippe Rogge, Srikanth Raju, Sandy Gupta

DX LT: Michelle Rong, Liwei Zhao, Hubert Ng

Event Core Team: Liang Li, Xiaojing Sun, Tao Yang

Corp Student Evangelism Team: Pablo Veramendi, Jennifer Ritzinger

MSRA: Tim Pan and UR team

DX: Livia Li, Lilith Liu, Tory Xu, Warren Zhou, Dean Gao, Yan Zhang, Lindsey Liu, Stars Zhou, Qiuyi Li, Yuheng Ding Shijun Liu.

PR: Huili Wang, Ming Cong

LCA: George Liu, Windy Yue, Crossing Wang, Sifan Ruan, Yanhong Zheng

Sponsors: Cherry Wang, Julia Wang, Min Zheng, Jun Pang (Intel)

Regarding the Imagine Cup China Final Event, reach Liang Li (liangli@microsoft.com), to know more about student programs, contact Xiaojing Sun (xisu@microsoft.com)

May, 2016

Developer Experience & Evangelism (DX) 

Microsoft China