Participate in the world's largest premier student technology competition

Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s largest premier student technology competition. It encourages students around the globe to imagine a better world in which people are empowered by technology.

Last year, more than 2,500+ students from Pakistan participated in this competition and team Magno Touch from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore won the Pakistan finals and represented Pakistan in the global finals held in Warsaw, Poland.

This year, the Imagine Cup 2011 – Global Finals will be held in United States of America (USA) and the winning team in the Software Design Category from Pakistan will be fully sponsored by Microsoft to go to the United States of America and compete in the global finals.

SOFTWARE DESIGN PAKISTAN - SCHEDULE:

ROUND	START DATE (all times 00:01 [12:01 A.M.] GMT)	END DATE (all times 23:59 [11:59 P.M.] GMT)
Round 1 -One page document describing the idea	July 9, 2010	March 20, 2011
Round 2 - Detailed project document along with screen shots	March 20, 2011	April 10, 2011
Round 3 - Project presentation for top 5 teams	April 27, 2011	April 27, 2011
Round 4 - Worldwide Finals	July 2011	July 2011
Email your entries for Round 1 at: b-hashau@microsoft.com before March 20, 2011

Visit: http://pakistan.imaginecup.com for further details.

Dear Faculty & Students,

Greetings!

I would like to thank each and every one of you who contributed in the launch event of “MIC Catalyst” in Pakistan not just by supporting it but also by keeping your campus students aware of the details and motivating them to take part in this program.
MIC Catalyst is a unique program designed to promote innovation in Pakistan ICT industry. The main idea behind this program is to facilitate transformation of high-potential students into successful businesses.

The key objectives of this initiative are:
· Create an empowerment program for high-potential students by providing them with:

o customized business and technical trainings

o business mentoring support through 1 on 1 sessions with renowned ICT industry entrepreneurs

o access to latest design, development and production tools

o a platform for increased market visibility mainly through BizSpark

· Promote entrepreneurship amongst young Pakistani talented minds through success stories coming out of this program

· Accelerate the growth of startup software companies in order to enhance the local software economy

The purpose of this email is to keep you aware about the next steps of this program. We are now in the process of collecting Idea documents. We need you to drive maximum idea submissions from your campus.

For this, below is what you may need to do:

• Identify the top teams in your esteemed institution.
• Help them submit their idea entries by following the steps written below:
o Each identified team should complete and submit the Idea Specification Document (template attached)
o Document should be named in the following format: _
o Minimum number of members should be 3 and maximum 6, per team
o All submissions should be sent across to v-jijams@microsoft.com
o Deadline for submission of the document – March 28th, 2011

After the submissions, the panel of judges will go through the ideas and will select the top ideas for next phases. (Details for next phase(s) will be provided later to the shortlisted teams).

We are keenly looking forward to receive Idea entries from you. My team will follow up soon to help address any questions you might have.

Thanks,