Software Design Invitational

The Software Design Invitational challenges students around the globe to explore their own creativity by using technology to solve what they consider to be challenging problems.  Imagine Cup provides a theme but the competitors provide the genius behind innovative, dynamic, and powerful software applications.  Using Microsoft tools and technology, competitors can unleash their ideas, their curiosities, and their talents towards creating usable software applications.  Competitors are asked to demonstrate innovation on the .NET Framework and Windows platform but the possibilities only begin with these requirements.  Globally, students in this invitational conceive, test, and build their ideas into applications that can change the world.  Many former winners go on to start their own companies, work at major corporations, and even integrate their projects into how their schools approach teaching. 

• Teams of up to 4 individuals
• Theme:  Imagine a world where “technology helps us to live healthier lives”
• Presentations and documentation at the WW finals must be in English, first and second rounds are subject to language requirement set by the Microsoft subsidiary you compete within.

• Self created Web service
• Designed on .NET Framework 2.0
• Use of Visual Studio family (Express, Standard, or Team System) for development

• Mobile device
• .NET Compact Framework
• ASP .NET
• SQL Server

• Application executables and readme files
• Project specification, no more than 5 pages
• One page executive summary
• Oral presentation – length TBD based on number of qualifying teams
• Visual representation of system architecture

• 15%     Problem Definition
  • How difficult is the problem being addressed?  How well is it being defined?
• 60%     Design

• Equal consideration will be given to:
  • Innovation – applications that approach a new problem, or look at an old problem in a new way.  
  • Impact - applications that either impact a large number of people very broadly, or impact a smaller number of people very deeply. 
  • Effectiveness – to what degree the application actually solves the problem in question.

• 15%     Development
  • The judges will be looking for elegant system architectures that break the problem down into logical chunks and modules.

• 10%     Presentation
  • The judges will be looking for oral presentations that provide background and context to the project, explain why the problem is an interesting one, highlight how the system works, and include an insightful demonstration. Teams will also be evaluated on their ability to take questions from the judging panel.

• A simple numerical scoring system will be used.  Each Judging element will be given a score of 1-10 and weighted according to guidance seen in the percentages associated with each.

• Participants must have built and presented a running software application that won a national or regional level competition in a country or region that is sponsoring a winning team for the worldwide Imagine Cup finals.

• First Place                   $25,000
• Second Place             $15,000
• Third Place                  $10,000
• Additional prizes:  Competitors that achieve advancement to the worldwide finals will also receive travel and accommodations to attend the final competition in Delhi, India.