 Chennai team in Microsoft cup finals
 Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd May 14 concluded the south zone finals of the Imagine Cup 2005 in Chennai. Imagine Cup is a global contest held by Microsoft to provide students across the world with an international platform to showcase their software development skills. The annual contest is in its third year, and this year more than 6,000 students across India participated.
The two winning teams from the south zone finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2005 that was held in Chennai today are:
 Team I - Project 'Origin' - Created by Sriram Krishnan, Vivek
Srikumar, Aarthi Ramamurthy, Kaushik Srenevasan from SRM Engineering College,
Chennai, PSG Tech, Coimbatore, and Thyagaraja College of Engineering, Madurai
Team II - Project 'Aina' - Created by Akshat
Choudhary, Lohitaksha S Chitre, Husain Ghadially and Sidu Ponnappa C. K. from
VTU, Bangalore
The theme for Imagine Cup 2005 is 'Breaking Down Boundaries', and students were encouraged to conceptualise technology solutions to help address emerging social issues. Following the zonal rounds held in Pune, Delhi and Chennai, the national finals of Imagine Cup 2005 will be held in June.
The India winners will then contest in the world finals being held in Japan in July, for a total prize of $ 50,000. Among the colleges that participated in the south zone finals, several teams were from Tamil Nadu, including Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, Jeppiar Engineering College, PSG College of Technology, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College and Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering.
In Chennai, nine teams presented their solutions to the panel of judges - Sanjay Poddar, head - .NET Practice, Accenture; Dilip Jain, senior manager, Cognizant; P K Sheshadrinathan, principal consultant, TCS; Ravi Venkatraman, senior program manager, EDS; Satya K, director, Global Product Development, iSoft;. Dr Ashok Korwar, strategic advisor, Polaris; Hemand Chordia, COO & co-founder, Web Duniya, Gopal Rao, technical lead, Verizon; Dutt K, principal solutions architect, L&T Infotech, and Gokul Seshan, DGM,
iSoft.
 Two teams from the south zone have now advanced to compete in the Indian national finals.
Along with the Imagine Cup, Microsoft also hosted the Student Project Program Expo in Chennai today. The top 14 submissions from the south zone were showcased at the Expo, for an audience comprising a mix of industry and academia. The Microsoft Student Project Program is an initiative undertaken by the company under which over 30,000 students from 1,500 technical institutes across 400 Indian cities and towns designed solutions on Microsoft technologies - as a part of their annual project submission. Microsoft provided these students with the tools and technologies required to create these projects and also mentored the students to assist them in the process.
The students who participated in the Microsoft Student Project Program also had the opportunity to gain a direct entry to the zonal rounds of Imagine Cup 2005. Among the 10 teams that participated in the Imagine Cup zonal round in Chennai, two teams were a part of the Student Project Program and developed solutions on cellular network simulation and call handling.
"Indian students are immensely talented, and amongst the most innovative technical minds in the world. Microsoft recognises this fact and is committed to helping the Indian student community hone and display their skills," said Sheila Gulati, director, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India.
 She further added, "We have seen unparalleled interest and participation in Imagine Cup 2005 and the Student Project Program - a great endorsement of the giant leaps India is making in emerging as the development hub of the world. We wish all the luck to the participants in the zonal rounds and hope to see them go on and win the global competition."
This year, Imagine Cup was open to both school and university students, and among other areas, students were encouraged to submit applications that address social issues. The contest includes nine 'open' categories such as software design, technology business plan and rendering, and three special categories created only for school students.
Microsoft Imagine Cup is being held in India for the third successive year. In the past, Imagine Cup witnessed resounding success with the winners from VESIT, Mumbai, being adjudged first runners-up during the 2003 world finals. In the last two years, more than 6,000 Indian students have participated in the Imagine Cup.
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