Los Angeles Area Students Among the First Round of US Imagine Cup Finalists

Microsoft recently announced the First Round of U.S. finalists for Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011, a global competition of more than 325,000 students representing 100 countries and regions, who work in teams solve global issues through research, personal passion and technology. Two of the finalist teams include students from Southern California universities.

In the Mobile Game Design category, Team Inspiration, from University of California, Riverside, developed Trash Boy – a mobile game where players prevent trash from entering the ocean to protect fish. Competing in the Software Design category, Team LifeLens, which includes a student from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a student from University of California, San Diego, developed software that uses a mobile phone camera to deliver an accurate diagnosis of malaria in the field. Both of these teams will compete in the U.S. national finals on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., in April.

We’d like to congratulate all of the finalists across the nation and look forward to reporting on the results of the U.S. finals in the spring.