Lebanese students from across several major universities, participated in the “Imagine Cup” final competition held on Friday 7th May at Berytech Technology & Health. Students presented their ideas and innovations in the presence of a multi-disciplinary jury including from private and public institutions including the Ministry of Economy & Trade, An-Nahar, the Association of the Lebanese Software industry (ALSI), Bit Solutions, the National Association for Science & Research and Microsoft.

A team from Université Saint-Esprit Kaslik (USEK) won the Lebanese Local Imagine Cup Competition with the project “CO2 Numbers” and will be present in Poland from the 3rd till 7th July to compete in the Worldwide Finals and represent Lebanon’s Student Innovations. The winning project aims to ensure environmental sustainability by detecting carbon dioxide levels across different regions, to monitor and control them and in the end have a safer and cleaner environment. “This is a global opportunity offered to us by Microsoft to show that as a small country, we can make a big difference in the world;  our software should be used to control the levels of carbon dioxide endangering our world” said one of the team members.

Other projects showcased in the competition were very promising as they addressed environmental, health and worldwide hunger challenges.

Aly Harake, Microsoft Lebanon Intellectual Property Manager and jury member confirmed: “In Lebanon we have talents who by all means can compete globally and make a big difference on a the world scale”
Nicolas Rouhana, Director of Berytech Technological Pole, who had, prior to the finals, coached the participants on doing successful presentations, stated: “The teams and ideas were fantastic; the young generation is proving that it has the capacity to innovate, create solutions and pave the way for a better and more promising tomorrow”.

The Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition; it is one way Microsoft is encouraging young people to apply their imagination, their passion, and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world.