GLOBAL – Take part in the Imagine Cup 2012 Windows Phone Challenge, which is sponsored for the first time by Nokia.

If you want to help end hunger, lift millions out of poverty, give children better access to primary education and combat diseases like HIV, TB and malaria – then this year the Imagine Cup is for you.  

“There are 7 billion people on the planet and 1 billion people living in chronic hunger. This is a wake up call to the reality of the planet.”

– Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute speaking to the Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Finalists

The Imagine Cup has been challenging student competitors to present creative technology solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems for ten years. This year you can design apps specifically for Windows Phones, and win a Nokia Lumia. 

In 2011 a team from the Palestinian Authority designed a game called Malaria Wars to raise awareness about one of the world’s most lethal and widespread diseases.  The game starts with ‘Captain Plasma’ fighting germs that are getting into the body through a hand scratch – only to discover a mosquito bite. ‘Mr. Brain’ then sends orders through nerves to check and protect the liver. When this fails Chloroquine is finally imported through the mouth to kill Malaria.



The Ibero Mexico team developed interactive activities, games and learning for children whose education had been disrupted through natural disasters, while an Italian team designed a game set in a medieval city that highlighted opportunities for recycling.

More than 350,000 entrants from 183 countries were whittled down to a few winning teams who met in New York for the Grand Finals where Microsoft unveiled $3 million grant program to turn some of these projects into reality.

This year finalists for the Imagine Cup will attend a final showdown in Sydney in July 2012 to see whose ideas will really change the world. 

And now there are even better resources available if you want to take part. You can use the Nokia IdeasProject database to access more than 7,000 ideas for apps.

“IdeasProject is Nokia’s crowdsourcing service, used by all kinds of people with great ideas. For the Windows Phone Challenge, there are thousands of still un-realised ideas. The students can utilize them as long as they credit the community and the idea creator who inspired them,” says Pia Erkinheimo, Head of Crowdsourcing at Nokia.

Or you can get inspired by one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

So, if you want to be part of history, develop apps for the fast-growing Windows Phone platform, and be one of the winning teams in Sydney, then register for the Imagine Cup today.