Technology giant Microsoft opens its annual student competition, Imagine Cup, to encourage young developers help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges.

By participating, young science and tech entrepreneurs create new and innovative projects that highlight their passion and ingenuity and will have the opportunity to network with professionals, gain new skills, win funding to further implement their ideas, and receive mentoring from top-notch technology leaders.

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2021, which is now open to students for submission of entries, will offer a grand cash prize of up to $75,000.

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Through several rounds of online and in-person competition, they compete for the championship, the cash prize, and the mentorship.

Past Imagine Cup winners have spurred economic opportunities and employment, with many great innovators seeing their career change after the competition. Some of the previous winners have gone on to work for Microsoft, delivering their innovation back to the market. Other student competitors have built careers in startups, industry, healthcare, and more, utilizing skills they learned throughout the competition experience and advice they received from mentors along the way.

Microsoft Philippines

To announce this year’s Imagine Cup, Microsoft Philippines held a virtual launch event recently, opening the competition up to Filipino participants.

“Imagine Cup is an opportunity; a platform to connect and make a difference, through innovation,” said Andres Ortola, country manager, Microsoft Philippines. “An example of that innovation is RapidPass, a project that saw Microsoft partnering with Developer Connect (DevCon) Philippines and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to create an application to help frontliners delivering help when it was needed.”

19 years

The past 19 years have seen more than two million students join this competition, from as many as 200 countries participating, with most of these student applications showing valuable and impactful projects, using Microsoft technologies.

With the mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft, through Imagine Cup, hopes that the next technology solutions tackling global issues will emerge.

Registration is now officially open for all interested participants.