"Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all"...

And so many of you did! This year's UK thread of the Imagine Cup saw our best-ever clutch of inspirational software solutions and proposals aimed at inspiring and educating students of all ages. We all understand that this is a huge commitment and effort undertaken on top of your existing studies, and for going beyond, we're truely grateful.

After due deliberation we're please to announce the winners of the UK Round 1. These teams have been invited to Microsoft's UK headquarters for the UK Final, to be held on 30th March - where they will need to survive both a quick-fire judging session and then a 30 minute presentation. Daunting stuff, but worth it - the winners of the UK final will be flown out to Korea for the worldwide finals in August - a fantastic prize, and huge opportunity for those hungry to make an impact in the technology world.

Ahem. I digress. The UK Round 1 winners are...

• Team Roundtrack - University of Hull
• Team Communitosystems - University of Aberystwyth
• The Seedlings - University of Hull
• Team HertsOfCode - University of Hertfordshire
• Team Compu-U-Teach - University of Aberystwyth
• Team Error 404 File Not Found - University of Hull
• Team Irresponsible Pizza Eaters - University of Hull
• Team Learning Curve - University of Reading
• magNet - University of St Andrew’s
• Team Ice - University of Aberystwyth
• Team Bath - University of Bath

Well done one and all - we'll see you on the 30th!

Initial observations are that there are a handful of Universities that have taken the Imagine Cup and use it to enhance their curriculum - the institutional effect can be clearly seen in Aber and Hull - where it turns out that a number of first year students are amongst the teams above.  That said individual efforts are still strongly evident, and it's great to see a number of Universities entering the Imagine Cup for the first time.

Andy