The Russian Imagine Cup Finals took place in Moscow, in the popular student venue of Moscow Aviation Institute Club, and Channel 8 was there.
7 teams from different parts of Russia came to Moscow to participate in the local final to see who will represent the country in Paris. It was an incredible event with more than 400 visitors, a Roundtable for Young Entrepreneurs, featuring Nick Surin (Imagine Cup 2005 Worldwide winner), representatives from several companies and venture funds), a Blog Contest, Xbox zone and amazing projects…
The event was opened by a Rock Band “Footprints on Water” from Chelyabinsk – they wrote a song specifically about the Imagine Cup!
After the opening, the competition split into parts: on main stage, in front of 400+ audience, 7 software design teams from different parts of Russia presented their projects, while competitors in Algorithms and Project Hoshimi competitions started to work on their problems in the “behind-the-glass” style of open space, observable by others. Following teams’ presentations, there was an Entrepreneurship Panel and Roundtable, where all students could ask their questions on how to turn their ideas into successful project. The panel included Nick Surin, Imagine Cup 2005 worldwide winner (he also served as a member of the judging panel), representatives from sponsor companies, venture funds, etc. While students were busy participating in the panel or relaxing in the special Xbox zone the judges were busy making the final decision.
As a result:
· 1st place was given to the joint team from several St.Petersburg Universities (SPbSU, SPbSU ITMO, SPbSU “LETI”) with the project “Arina” – the system to model the fire spread in forests and to help chose the right method for fire extinguishing. Their presentation was by far the most spectacular, and the level of problems they were handling is amazing!
· 2nd place went to the team from Nizhny Novgorod with .Life project (aimed at modeling the ecological situation in cities, taking into account highways, buildings and green areas on the map), and 3rd place – to the joint project from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Baumann Moscow State Technical University with AirRanger project (they designed a small helicopter to track the fire and actually made it fly into the audience during their presentation!).
· Special Entrepreneurship prize from Intel was given to the team from South Urals State University (Chelyabinsk) with FreeWay project, which used GPS-equipped cars and centralized server to prevent traffic jams.
nevertheless Imagine Cup in Russia is still alive, PhotoCup.ru is still receiving entries for the Digital photography category.
There are more local finals happening now all around the world and they will be here soon!