Event report: Howest team awarded second place at worldwide Imagine Cup finals

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Every year Microsoft organises Imagine Cup, the world's premier student technology competition. About 325000 students from all around the world registered for one of the competition categories: software design, embedded development, game design, digital media and IT challenge. Across all categories, 400 students made it to the worldwide finals, which took place in Warsaw, Poland from July 3 till 8.

More than 700 teams of 4 students competed in the game design competition. Together with 5 other teams (Philippines, France, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico), the Belgian team NomNom Productions from Howest was selected for the worldwide finals. The team consisted of Rob De Reycke, Jeroen Tavernier, Leslie Van den Broeck and Jerry Verhoeven and was coached by mentor Mike Ptacek, lecturer in the Digital Arts and Entertainment (DAE) program at Howest. During the presentation of their game "Shift" at the worldwide finals, the team made a very strong impression on the jury and was awarded the second place, good for a money prize of $10,000 USD. You can download a demo of Shift on the team's website.

You can watch the presentations of the game design finalists here. A recording of the award ceremony can be found here.

With this result Howest continues on its very strong reputation: at the Imagine Cup '08 worldwide finals in Paris, the Drunk Puppy team was also awarded the second place with their game Future Flow. In the meantime, this team created their own startup company. Last year, not one but two teams of Howest made it to the Imagine Cup '09 worldwide finals in Cairo.

In the software design competition, team Biamori from Ghent University made it to the worldwide finals. The team consisted of Wouter Devinck, Jeroen Verhulst, Niels Derdaele and Sebastiaan Polfliet. They created a partnership collaboration platform which you can discover here.

To get a good impression of what the worldwide finals are all about (the city of Warsaw, the opening ceremony, the presentations in front of the jury, the exhibition hall, the award ceremony, and last but not least the party), check out our photo gallery.