The winners of Microsoft Imagine Cup Sri Lanka 2016

It’s one of the biggest events in the Microsoft calendar for a student. It’s a competition that sees countless students from all four corners of the globe participate. Together, they work in teams to use technology and creativity to solve some of the biggest problems the world faces today. This is the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. It happens once a year and now it’s back in Sri Lanka.

This year, the Imagine Cup competition features 3 categories – Innovation, World citizenship, and Games. Speaking at the award ceremony, Wellington Perera, DX Lead at Microsoft Sri Lanka and the competition manager said that this year their goal was to make it the biggest Imagine Cup ever. At the time, the team had no idea how they would pull it off.

At the conclusion of the competition at the award ceremony, it was clear that they had achieved this ambitious goal. Participation doubled compared to last year. The initial rounds of the Imagine Cup competition saw 170 teams from both government and private universities, across the island. With so many teams, the initial rounds of the competition went on for 5 full days. When we arrived to witness the finals, we saw that number shrink to 22.

Finally, out of those 22 teams, only 3 from each category were selected to represent Sri Lanka at the global semi-finals. It is at these global semi-finals that the teams will be representing Sri Lanka on the global stage.

Games

• 2^nd runner-up: Team Bandi Studio from University of Peradeniya
• 1^st runner up: WhileLOOP from University of Colombo School of Computing
• Winner: Team BitMasters from University of Moratuwa

Innovation

• 2^nd runner-up: WhileLOOP from the University of Colombo School of Computing
• 1^st runner-up: Iluso from the University of Colombo School of Computing
• Winner: BitMasters from the University of Moratuwa

World Citizenship

• 2nd runner up: SAS Ninjas from the University of Moratuwa
• 1^st runner up: BitMasters from the University of Moratuwa
• Winner: Genisys from IIT

Having won the Nationals, the real challenge for these teams start now. They will be representing Sri Lanka on the global stage. They now have to focus on developing their ideas further in anticipation of the World Semi-Finals. Should the teams win at the World Semi-Finals then they would advance to the World Finals which will be held this July in Seattle, USA. We wish all the teams the best of luck and hope the odds be in their favor.

Note: We were alerted by members of Genisys that we had made a mistake in the article – they were quoted as being from SLIIT, when in reality they were IIT. This typo has been fixed. We apologize for this error.