The hunger to create; and the attitude–Stand out and enter the Imagine Cup

Guest blog by Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Partner Business Evangelist, Microsoft

Recently I got an opportunity to attend a hack organized by the Microsoft Student Partners to encourage participation and entry into the Imagine Cup Competition.

On the face of it, I had to mentor the students on their projects and business plans, but oh my, they were such an inspiration.

From using AI to increasing social impact via donations in a way you’d care about, to solving everyday issues that we face but don’t realize, to using technology to empower the sense of hearing, in a way that I have never seen before, there were numerous ideas that made me go ‘WOW’ on a regular basis.

But, my greatest takeaway was the tenacity of the students; the hunger to create; and the attitude with which they approached the problems. More so, I was amazed at the way that the Microsoft Students Partners came together.

The atmosphere was infectious, the 3 disciplines coming together – working as one – was an explosion of creativity. The students helped me take perspective– and the customer centricity in some of the ideas (hush… – can’t tell too much before the Imagine cup), made me smile a mile-long smile.

The projects were an embodiment of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Challenge – where we take technology to solve problems that we face. And with this year it having no theme, it has all the themes, we allow the creative juices to flow – to uncover problems that we may not have seen.

I feel that the teams had a strong story to tell – and I would love to see them on stage again. If you were in the hack, and are reading this – my personal recommendation is to go onto this link and apply – you guys rocked it!