Regional Imagine Cup final 2009 - Poland

The Polish Software Design semi-finals took place on May 12-13th 2009 in Warsaw, Poland. Both the finals and the SD category competition were co-organized with the Institute of Industrial Design (gov. institution) and the finals were sponsored by the Microsoft Entrepreneurship Forum. The Polish edition of Imagine Cup is held in association with the Minister of Economy.

At a glance:

• 148 positive stories, 20 potential Top Stories between April 23rd and May 20th
• Representatives from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education were present
• The Ministry of Economy sponsored the Entrepreneurship Workshops attended by 160+ competitors
• 14 judges (CEOs, BDMs and TDMs from the biggest Microsoft Partner Companies in Poland
• 230+ attendees (Investors, Deans, Professors, Lecturers, Student Partners, Students, Press)
• The Microsoft Entrepreneurship Forum was held during the country semi-finals
• Business Awards (projects with biggest business potential) went to– Demoscene Spirit, Dino Team – teams will be invited to special individual business workshops sponsored by our Partners!
• Local Interoperability Award sponsored by CSI
• Best design award sponsored by Institute of Industrial Design
• Last but not least – Special guest: Joe Wilson

Software Design in Poland: Finals

The two-day finals started on May 12 with the poster session. 14 judges (CEOs, BDMs and TDMs from the biggest Microsoft Partner Companies in Poland – see section Jury) spent 5 hours going from one team to another to see the students’ projects and try out their solutions. At the end of the day, during the official dinner, the judges announced their five winning teams (out of a total of 10 teams).

The second day of the finals started at 8.30am with the registration. During the first half of the event guests and jury watched the best five teams’ presentations. Each presentation took 40 minutes - every team had 5 minutes to prepare, 20 minutes to present and 15 minutes to answer the jury’s questions. All the teams were very professional and well prepared, but there only be one winner.

When the presentations part of the competition was over, Joe Wilson was invited to the stage to give his opinion about the competition and the presented projects. During the lunch break the jury retired to reach a verdict, while the guests and teams could take a break and have a discussion over lunch.

And finally the moment everyone had been waiting for – Team Demoscene Spirit was announced as the winner! It was a surprising result: this team will represent Poland during the worldwide finals for second year running! So our new finalists are three team members you might already know from Paris :).

The Winners :

• 1st place – Demoscene Spirit
  ISIS is a project which aimed at decreasing the mortality rate of newborns. In brief it is a modern, specialized medical system which can be deployed on regular PCs. Low cost and easiness of use makes it an ideal solution both for individual customers and institutions involved in organizing field hospitals, refugee camps etc.
• 2nd place – kAMUflage
• 3rd place – NosoiFighters
• 4th place – ex aequo FTeamS and RHEA
• 6th place – ex aequo COPS, Dino Team, Expression of Life, LookAhead, SpringBees
• Local Interoperability Award – FteamS
• Business Awards (projects with the biggest business potential) – Demoscene Spirit, Dino Team – teams will be invited to special individual business workshops sponsored by our Partners!
• Best design award – FteamS - award sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Design.
• Special award from Jury - NosoiFighters for their scientific research part of the project.

The last point on our agenda was the party! The party was held at a bowling club and started at 7.30 pm, finishing about 1.00 am next day. The teams had the opportunity to meet with members of the jury and other competitors on a more informal level. They were able to get to know more about what people thought of their solutions why they won or didn’t win. There was also a bowling competition :)