2022 brings the 20th anniversary of Think about Cup, the preeminent international pupil expertise competitors the place college students from all over the world apply expertise to think about, develop, and current revolutionary options that tackle real-life native and international points. This yr, college students from over 160 international locations participated within the competitors. Submitted concepts included an app that teaches children easy methods to write interactively, a monitoring system that ensures very best situations for the secure storage and transportation of produce, an app that interprets signal language into Python code, and a well being monitoring system for breeding chickens.
From tens of hundreds of registrants, 48 World Finalist groups had been chosen final month, and now solely 3 groups stay. On Could 24, the primary day of Microsoft Construct, they are going to be competing within the Think about Cup World Championship for the grand prize of USD50,000 in Azure credit, USD100,000 money prize, and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella. Every workforce will pitch their undertaking and demo their expertise, adopted by questions from a panel of seasoned professionals. Judges will use their business and private expertise to evaluate every resolution based mostly on its use of Azure expertise, accessibility and inclusion, marketability as a enterprise concept, and its potential for making an influence.
Let’s meet the judges:
Linda Lian
CEO/Founder
Group Room
Linda Lian is co-founder and CEO at Frequent Room, the clever neighborhood development platform for at present’s fastest-growing firms. She based Frequent Room in 2020 to assist deliver organizations of all sizes nearer to their communities. Frequent Room is the primary and solely platform that gathers neighborhood engagement, product utilization, and buyer knowledge right into a single place and makes it actionable for organizations. Beforehand, Linda led product advertising for serverless computing at Amazon Net Providers, the place she noticed firsthand the influence developer communities had on product adoption and advancing the corporate’s objectives. She lives in Seattle the place she enjoys spending time outside and along with her companion, canine, and cat.
Kat Norton
Founder and Chief Excel Officer
Miss Excel
Kat Norton spent 4 years as a marketing consultant educating Excel and in June 2020 determined to publish mini Excel classes on TikTok out of boredom. Her viral Excel trick movies are infused with creativity, music, dance, and real ardour; they in fact shortly went viral. The fourth video was in regards to the data-searching XLOOKUP characteristic set to DMX’s track “X Gon Give It To Ya” and surpassed 100,000 views inside just some days. Inside a number of months, she constructed out on-line programs to promote on to customers. This enjoyable aspect hustle become Miss Excel, a profitable full-time Excel coaching enterprise that has grown to greater than 1 million followers throughout TikTok & Instagram — and has introduced in 7 figures in course gross sales..
She additionally hosts company Excel trainings and does motivational talking engagements on easy methods to shift your vitality to search out achievement in your profession. Kat was not too long ago awarded the Microsoft MVP award and was featured in Enterprise Insider, CNBC, Fox, Bloomberg, The Occasions and Day by day Mail as a pioneer within the “Excel Influencer” house. Kat was additionally named one of many Prime 10 Social Media Influencers of 2021 by Forbes.
Phil Spencer
CEO
Microsoft Gaming
Phil Spencer leads Microsoft’s international interactive leisure enterprise throughout all units and providers. He performs all types of video games and has labored in expertise and leisure for greater than 30 years, main international enterprise, inventive and engineering groups. He has beforehand held roles throughout Microsoft together with Government Vice President, Gaming; Head of Xbox; Company Vice President, Microsoft Studios; and Basic Supervisor, Microsoft Sport Studios EMEA.
In his roles at Microsoft, Phil has led the Xbox group by means of a number of console launches; a number of acquisitions, together with Mojang (guardian firm of Minecraft); and influenced international leisure franchises resembling Halo, Gears of Battle and Forza. He has additionally led the enlargement of cross-platform gaming with the Xbox Community, investments in subscription enterprise fashions with Xbox Sport Go, and Microsoft’s introduction of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Along with his workforce and colleagues, he continues to push the boundaries of creativity, technical innovation, and enjoyable throughout genres, audiences, and units.
Earlier than starting his profession as an intern with Microsoft in 1988, Phil graduated from the College of Washington. He’s an govt sponsor of the college’s Division of Human Centered Design and Engineering and in addition serves on the Board of Trustees of The Paley Middle for Media.
Be a part of us on Could 24 at Microsoft Construct to search out out who will turn into the 2022 Think about Cup champion! Observe the motion on Instagram and Twitter to remain updated with all of the competitors motion. Plus, as a pupil at Microsoft Construct, you possibly can discover matters designed to encourage your studying journey and provide help to additional your profession in tech or construct your subsequent superb undertaking. Register for free of charge now!