More than 300,000 students from 100 countries are registered this year for Imagine Cup 2009, a Microsoft Corp. competition that challenges them to use their technology skills and imagination to address the world’s toughest problems. Winning students from local, national, regional and online competitions will compete at the Imagine Cup finals in Cairo from July 3–7.

Now, Imagine Cup, in its seventh year, continues to encourage students around the globe to imagine a better world in which people are empowered by technology created by the students’ talent and innovation. Ranging from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education, the United Nations has identified some of the hardest challenges in the world today in its Millennium Development Goals. Microsoft is calling on young programmers, artists and technologists to rise to this challenge: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.”

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer announced, in Warsaw, Poland, that the Imagine Cup 2010 Finals will take place in Poland, a country with a track record of producing highly skilled IT students as well as successful Imagine Cup entrants.

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