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Imagine Cup winners OneBuzz to represent New Zealand in New York

Tuesday 24 May 2011, 4:11PM

By Microsoft New Zealand

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Microsoft New Zealand Imagine Cup 201
Microsoft New Zealand Imagine Cup 201 Credit: Microsoft New Zealand

National champions to take on the world at the Worldwide Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals in July.

Microsoft today announced that the winners of the Microsoft New Zealand Imagine Cup 2011 will be heading to New York to represent the country in the Worldwide Finals in July.

Team OneBuzz from the University of Auckland, the victors of the New Zealand competition, will be winging their way to New York City to compete against 124 teams from 73 countries and regions.

Their project aims to wipe out malaria using an information collaboration platform to inhibit the spread and ultimately eliminate the disease.

“Having a technology system that updates the concerned parties within days rather than months means aid can be dispatched to designated regions quickly and efficiently. By concentrating aid efforts and reacting quickly we have a better chance of eradicating malaria from the surface of this planet,” says Vinny Lohan, Team Leader of OneBuzz.

“The whole team is extremely excited to be travelling to New York, a second finals competition in a row for some of us.”

Scott Wylie, Director of the Developer and Platform Group for Microsoft New Zealand, says it is brilliant to see a Kiwi team making it to the worldwide finals.

“It is fantastic to see students of such a high-calibre entering the competition, and even more exciting to see them make it through the Regional competition and winning a place in the finals. We are very proud to be supporting Team OneBuzz and wish them all the best for the competition,” says Scott Wylie,

“Their project was well-developed, reasoned and very reflective of the competition theme, based on the U.N. millennium development goals: to solve the world’s toughest problems with technology.”

“After working so hard for so long, winning the New Zealand Imagine Cup for a second year running feels great, and being able to head to New York is the icing on the cake,” says Vinny.

“With all the support we’ve had along the way, we’re ready to take our project to the next level. Now we’ve just got to keep the strong momentum going through to the finals in New York. We aim to make New Zealand proud.”

Team OneBuzz were the Microsoft New Zealand Imagine Cup 2010 winners (as Team OneBeep) and won third place in their category at the Worldwide Imagine Cup finals in Poland last year.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s largest technology competition, challenging students from around the globe to develop technologies that help solve the world’s toughest problems. Now in its ninth year, the Imagine Cup is a truly global competition with more than 325,000 students from 142 countries participating. Last year's New Zealand winners, Team One Beep, went on to take third place in their category at the worldwide finals in Poland.

What begins with an idea and a lot of hard work can become a future software breakthrough, a jump start for a career, or a flourishing new industry. The Imagine Cup invites students to learn and collaborate by applying their imagination, passion and creativity to technology innovations. The competition motivates the competitors to give it their all, and provides opportunities to form friendships that last well beyond the competition itself.