University of Bahrain Wins Microsoft Imagine Cup Regional Finals

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• Bahrain Team’s Project ‘Cash Trash’ Chosen as the Winning Innovation

Microsoft Gulf today announced the regional winners of the Imagine Cup 2009 after an intense competition amongst finalists from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE. The four-member team from University of Bahrain (UOB), Ahmed Majdi; Mahmoud Al Refy; Mohamed Anwar and Ghassan Ali celebrated their first-place finish in the regional finals. The second runners-up was the team from BITS Pilani Dubai and UAE University (joint team) and the third runner-up was the team from the University of Sharjah. All three teams will represent the region and participate at the global finals of the Imagine Cup that is being held in Cairo, Egypt later this year.
 
This year students took on the important challenge of “imagining a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.” Each team had twenty minutes to present their work to a panel of judges comprising of senior members from the enterprise and government sectors.
 
The University of Bahrain team named ‘Genius Touch’ developed a project titled ‘Cash Trash’ that is developed around environment protection. Cash Trash is a smart bin that will allow users to get points for all the recyclable material they put in the bin. Using simple software such as Bluetooth and sensor technologies, the bin can calculate how much energy can be saved with points given away as incentives to encourage users to recycle.  
 
 "I am very proud of our students" said the team’s mentor Ahmed AlTyeb. "They have demonstrated that their talent and passion for technology can produce solutions that can truly make a difference to the world.”
 
“These projects demonstrate the power of software to address real-world problems and I am very impressed by the high levels of technical innovation that these students achieved in their work,” added Charbel Fakhoury, General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. “This year’s Imagine Cup participants all share a commitment to solving some of today’s toughest global challenges and in turn touch people’s lives, which is very inspiring. They represent the next generation of business and technology leaders and their creativity and passion are reasons for us all to be optimistic about the future.”
 
Thirteen well known varsities from across the Gulf participated in the regional finals – seven from UAE; one from Bahrain; two from Oman and three from Kuwait. This year’s event was supported by du telecom, CNBC Arabia, Information Technology Authority (ITA), Oman and Burgan Bank, Kuwait.
 
As the world’s premier student technology competition, the Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s initiative to encourage young people to apply their imagination and creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference and address real-world issues.

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