{"id":993,"date":"2014-03-04T08:35:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T14:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/?p=993"},"modified":"2014-03-04T08:40:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T14:40:18","slug":"the-imagine-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2014\/03\/the-imagine-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"The Imagine Cup Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a couple of decades of working in IT in a wide variety of different capacities, I still fondly recall my first computer: The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commodore_64\">Commodore 64<\/a>.&#160; Apart from playing tons of games, interacting on <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/BBS\">BBS\u2019s<\/a>, reading computer magazines, and writing basic (technically, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/BASIC\">BASIC<\/a>) programs, I had a lot of fun just learning about how computers worked.&#160; That was still in the early days of home computing.&#160; Even back then, though, I had so many different ideas for great applications and games.&#160; Now, of course, technology that is many millions of times more powerful is available globally and to a huge portion of the world.&#160; <\/p>\n<p>To me, one of the most important goals of being involved with IT is to inspire others to do the same.&#160; There are so many different aspects of application design and development, data management, systems administration, game design, and related fields that it\u2019s a great field with which to excite people.&#160; Backgrounds in science, technology, and math are well complemented by skills in art, literature, entertainment, geography, sociology, and dozens of other fields.&#160; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"image\" style=\"border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 4px 10px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/image_thumb.png\" width=\"530\" height=\"111\" \/><\/a>To In order to help foster that spirit, Microsoft has created <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imaginecup.com\/\">Imagine Cup<\/a>.&#160; This program is as an annual competition that allows groups from around the world to design software and receive feedback from industry judges.&#160; The overall challenge:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Competition categories include user experience design, mobile application ideas, and a wide variety of other technologies.&#160; More details and statistics on the Imagine Cup Competition are available from the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Imagine_cup\">Imagine Cup Wikipedia Page<\/a>.&#160; You can also see a summary and a list of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Imagine_cup#Winners\">winners<\/a> in that article.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re interested in participating in the competition, see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imaginecup.com\/Custom\/Index\/Competitions#?fbid=5Io7-vca6vE\">All Competitions<\/a> page to get started with a list of different categories and areas of focus.&#160; You can create an account, form a team, and submit your materials using the site.&#160; This year, winning contestants even have the chance to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imaginecup.com\/Blog\/Details\/meet-bill-gates#?fbid=5Io7-vca6vE\">Meet Bill Gates<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m currently volunteering as a judge for the User Experience competition, and so far I have been really impressed with the thought, effort, and creativity that the contestants have shown.&#160; Be sure to use the links in this post to find more information!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a couple of decades of working in IT in a wide variety of different capacities, I still fondly recall my first computer: The Commodore 64.&#160; Apart from playing tons of games, interacting on BBS\u2019s, reading computer magazines, and writing basic (technically, BASIC) programs, I had a lot of fun just learning about how computers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-fun-stuff","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}