Team Rhapsody Crowned Microsoft Malaysia's Imagine Cup Champs Once Again!

Team Rhapsody Crowned Microsoft Malaysia's Imagine Cup Champs Once Again!

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia – On May 16, Team Rhapsody from the Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation (UCTI) emerged as the winners of the Imagine Cup 2012 Malaysia Finals for the second consecutive year. This year, they won with their innovative solution known as “WizBoard”, and are set to represent Malaysia in the Worldwide Finals of the premier global student technology competition in Sydney, Australia in July.

The “WizBoard” application is very much in keeping with the theme of this year's competition, “Imagine a World Where Technology Helps Solve the Toughest Problem”. Participants of the competition were required to use technology to help solve real world problems as defined by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

“Since its debut in 2003, the Imagine Cup Malaysia has grown by leaps and bounds. In the first year only 90 students participated in this competition and now, ten year later, we have received more than 1800 registrations for this competition. As for the finals this year, we had 30 teams consisting of 20 teams from public universities and 10 teams from private universities,” said YBhg Prof Datuk Dr. Ahmad Yusoff, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknikal Melaka (UTeM) and Chairman of the Imagine Cup 2011 Organizing Committee.

In their second year of participation, Team Rhapsody developed an application that will solve teacher attrition issue that is faced by the world today. With the aim of closing the education gaps between rural, urban and harsh condition areas, this application needs just one teacher to teach in the class and the particular lesson is saved and accessible for people from all walks of life, including those who are from different language background and location. The solution can even be used by the visually impaired.

While the grand prize winners' application may be very impressive, the first and second runner-ups weren't too far behind. Team 4GM from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) developed a system for the Windows Phone platform that tackles environmental sustainability and energy wastage known as “Recycle Bingo”. The second runner-up, Team Sirius, also from UPM, invented a game called “Hooray Hubby”, a pregnancy information game that targets husbands who want to understand pregnancy better in an informative and fun way. This team also took home the supplementary Presentation Superstar Award for their outstanding teamwork and presentation.

“I saw a bit of that future at the Imagine Cup Malaysia Finals, which was a microcosm of what Malaysia aspires to be. The students here can act as catalysts to bring forth that transformation. They can catapult this country to greater heights,” Said Ananth Lazarus, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia.

Here's the list of the other winners of the competition:

• Teams SLIM from Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) were winners for the Windows Phone 7 Mobile Development Award for their project called “Gavida”, a solution that helps reduce the maternity mortality rate and improve the healthcare of conceiving mothers by providing them with different ways to ensure that the mother is prepared during childbirth.
• Team KIHECT from Universiti Teknology Malaysia (UKM) won the Kinect Fun Life Award for its “Kinect Hand-Eye Coordination trainer”, to enhance human potential and ability of coordination, a skill related to physical fitness.
• Team Beyond Imagination took home the Social Cause Award for its “1 Bid, One Hope” solution that works as a donation point and a bidding hub, similar to e-Bay or lelong.com

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