Microsoft has announced that Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority has signed a strategic partnership to support, for the second consecutive year, the Imagine Cup 2013 Competition in the Kingdom.

The competition is organised by Microsoft for students and fresh graduates aged 16 to 23 years old, and the national winner team will represent Bahrain in the Imagine Cup 2013 Worldwide Finals set to take place in July 2013 in St Petersburg, Russia.

Mohammad Ali Al Qaed, chief executive of the eGovernment Authority (eGA), said: “We strongly believe in the potential of our youngsters, and Microsoft is providing them such a unique opportunity to challenge themselves, achieve their potential and represent the Kingdom in front of a global audience.”

“We are pleased to partner with Microsoft for another session of the Imagine Cup Competition and we are excited to witness the hype this initiative creates within the young community in the Kingdom.”

“We are pleased to have the eGovernment Authority as a strategic partner for another session of Imagine Cup; we are thankful for their continued support and trust in the competition’s objectives,” said Tareq Hijazi, regional country manager for Microsoft in Bahrain & Oman.

“Organising this kind of global competition in Bahrain would not be possible without the support and collaboration of local institutions that believe in the talents and potentials of the youngsters to build and drive a knowledge-based economy.”

More than 600 students took part in last year’s session of Imagine Cup Competition in Bahrain; the national winner was Team Future Torch from AMA International University.

The winning project “Lights” is a system that aims to effectively control and manage the lighting of highways using motion detectors and visual sensors.

The system is designed not only to reduce the unnecessary usage of energy, but most importantly to save drivers’ life and help alert authorities of any danger or accident to provide imminent rescue and assistance.

To inspire more students globally and encourage a wider variety of aspiring innovators to participate, Microsoft has redesigned Imagine Cup around three new core competitions built on the core elements that have been most popular with students in the past 10 years - social impact and gaming - while expanding the competition’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. – TradeArabia News Service