Regional Imagine Cup final 2009 - Greece

The “Innovation Day” event by Microsoft Hellas was held on Monday, May 18, at Microsoft’s Innovation Center.

For the third consecutive year, “Innovation Day” hosted a creative exchange of views among representatives from the public and private sectors on the need for investing in innovation and – as the title “Investing in Knowledge” reveals – focused on examining the possibility of upgrading the quality of education by means of adopting innovative teaching methods. The event concluded with the award of prizes to the winners of the Greek final of the student contest Imagine Cup 2009 in the presence of Mr. Aris Spiliotopoulos, Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, and Ms. Anna Diamantopoulou, Member of Parliament, PASOK.

In its seventh year, the Imagine Cup competition continues to encourage young people from all over the globe to contribute, through their imagination and talent, to the process of dealing with important contemporary issues. This year, under the title “Imagine a world where technology would contribute to solving the greatest contemporary problems”, participants were called upon to present proposals in terms of solving one out of the eight Millennium Development Goals, as specified by the United Nations Organization. This year more than 300,000 students from 100 different countries have registered to participate in the contest.

Mr. Chris Tsangos, Managing Director, Microsoft Hellas, underlined the following in his welcome address: “Pursuing the vision of a better future renders the constant search for solutions and best practices imperative. It is in that context that innovation forms a guarantee for progress and a catalyst for growth. We, the people of Microsoft, strongly believe in the limitless potential of young people and their creativity. We think that by taking advantage of technological achievements in the educational process, children will be able to develop the required skills faster, something that in any case also constitutes a necessary prerequisite for their subsequent progress and prosperity.”

During his presentation, Mr. Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation, stated: “Events such as Innovation Day aim at revealing in practice, what we all know and have embraced at Microsoft, in other words the fact that investing in technology can form the vehicle for a better quality of life. After all, that is one of the reasons why we organize initiatives like Imagine Cup, offering the young generation a way to channel their creative energy and, by taking advantage of the potential technology has to offer, actively contribute towards finding solutions to our society’s problems.”

Mr. Aris Spiliotopoulos, Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, as well as Ms. Anna Diamantopoulou, Member of Parliament, PASOK, who honored the event’s proceedings with their presence, awarded prizes to the three winning teams of the domestic Imagine Cup 2009 final and at the same time announced the team that will represent Greece in the world finals to be held in Cairo, Egypt in July.

The team “NTUA”, of the Management and Decision Support Systems Laboratory (EPU-NTUA) of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the National Technical University of Athens, ranked first after presenting the innovative application Artificial Intelligence Doctor (AID). The solution in question is an automatic disease diagnosis proposal, adjusted to the conditions prevailing in developing countries that are faced with a lack of doctors. Prompt diagnosis firstly of malaria and pneumonia is achieved by automated procedures, without requiring – to the extent feasible – the presence of medical staff.

The Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, Mr. Aris Spiliotopoulos, warmly congratulated the contestants on their work. During his speech, the Minister stressed the following: “For a country like Greece in particular, the need to invest in the fields of research and technology is of huge importance. In a country where the tertiary sector of the economy develops rapidly, where the competitive advantage consists in the quality and specialization of products and services and the population’s cultural standard is among the highest in the European Union, boosting our innovative performance and investing in education and learning for the young generation cannot but constitute our strategic choice for the years to come.”

Ms. Anna Diamantopoulou, Member of Parliament, PASOK, commented on the students’ efforts and stated characteristically: “Globalization has transformed the world as we know it and brings to the forefront new great and dynamic countries. The evolution of technology has changed productive relations and created a whole new scenery in terms of the countries’ investment sectors and comparative advantages. The International crisis calls for direct access, as well as a change in the Growth model. It is in the context of this new era that Greece must rely on innovation, research and technology. The country’s current model refrains from producing, offering or showing a way out. The goal that used to be a great Greece must now be an INTELLIGENT GREECE.”