First 1-2 times a HOWEST-team (Hogeschool West Vlaanderen) made it to the Imagine Cup World Wide finals it looked like a lucky shot. Yes the team was great and they had build a top game, but beating a couple of 100 competitors in the selections needs a little bit of luck too. I’m sort of doubting my own words here, luck seemed to have little to do with it now that HOWEST students have secured a second team for the WW finals .
Not a big deal? On the contrary! Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition in witch 350.000 students from 183 countries compete for international recognition and $215,000 in cash prizes. The students’ projects tackle serious humanitarian issues in 9 technological categories. Only 124 student teams have secured their places at the July 8–13 Worldwide Finals event.
This year HOWEST students are AGAIN selected for the finals in the games Category where they are traditionally one of the strongest WW and now they have added a team to the new Windows phone category. Even more impressive if you see who else made it into the finals.
Windows Phone 7
| Country | Team | School/University |
| Belgium | Digitron-WP7 | Howest |
| Korea | HOMERUN | Dongguk/Samgmyung University |
| Korea | Zipi Zigi | Seoul Nat. Univ. of Technology |
| Singapore | Code Instincts | Tamesek Polytechnic |
| United States | The LifeLens Project |
Game Design – Windows/XBox (XNA)
| Country | Team | School/University |
| Belgium | Crash Games | Howest |
| Brazil | Replay | Federal University of Pernambuco |
| Brazil | Signum Games | Universidade Positivo |
| Czech Republic | WickedTeam | Brno University of Technology |
| Thailand | JubJub | Mahidol University |
The Future is Now! 