Mark Merry, associate professor of math at Campbell University, recently led a team of Information Technology students at Tunku Abdul Raman College (TARC), Malaysia, to a 2nd place showing at the annual Microsoft Imagine Cup Contest. The contest ended in a tie for first place, but TARC lost the tie-breaker round.”I am very proud of the team,” said Merry. “They came extremely close to taking the coveted national championship. This is a highly-competitive IT contest.”The Microsoft Imagine Cup Contest had over 50 colleges and universities across Malaysia submit software projects dealing with this year’s theme: “Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all.”Merry explains each project is created by a team of four individuals. TARC enrolls over 600 computer science majors and thus has many teams creating projects. Microsoft selects the best six projects from across the country and then the six colleges/universities compete in a final presentation. The schools orally present their software at the Microsoft Kuala Lumpur headquarters in the Petronas Towers. Microsoft judges review the software based on technical merit, creativity, oral presentation and use of Microsoft products.The TARC team plans to compete again next year.Photo: Mark Merry, associate professor of math at Campbell University, recently led a team of Information Technology students in Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Raman College (TARC), to a 2nd place showing at the annual Microsoft Imagine Cup Contest. They won 2,500 Ringits Malaysian, the Malaysian national currency, which is actually worth $700 US dollars.
TARC competes in Microsoft Imagine Cup Contest