YEREVAN, MAY 6, MOYAN TAPAN. "Alpha-Sphere" team of programmers was announced the winner of the first-ever Armenian stage of "Imagine Cup" competition held by Microsoft for the 6th time. This was announced at the award giving ceremony of the Armenian stage which took place in Yerevan on May 5. The theme of the competition was "Imagine a World where Technology Enables to Maintain Sustainable Environment". "Alpha-Sphere" presented "Global Electronic Garbage Market" system, whose introduction may allow organizations to search and obtain garbage material for processing. The winning team received the right to participate in the worldwide final in Paris in July 2008, while the team members were rewarded with cash prizes of 450 thousand drams each. The RA minister of economy Nerses Yeritsian congratulated the winners and participants of the competition. According to him, the Armenian government will always assist with implementation of ideas which aim at "forming a globally thinking and entrerprising youth that looks ahead". In the words of Bagrat Yengibarian, director of Enterprise Incubator Founadtion - co-organizer of the competition, 5 out of numerous teams, which took part in the competition announced in late December 2007, have managed to pass successfully the path of realization of the competition's ideas and to present software solutions that have exceeded expectations. Director of Microsoft RA company - Microsoft's Armenian subsidiary Grigor Barseghian said that Imagine Cup competition was initiated in some Baltic countries as well but it did not take place due to the absence of technological solutions. Artak Ghazarian, director of USAID-financed Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Project - another co-organizer of the Armenian competition, expressed a hope that the winning team will successfully present its work in Paris, which will open an opportunity to improve reputation of Armenia as a country of information technologies. He expressed an opinion that the works to have won first places are interesting, adding that steps on their application will be taken. The teams in 2nd and 3rd place also received cash prizes and diplomas, while those in 4th and 5th place were given encouraging cash prizes. To recap, more than 100 thousand students from over 100 countries participated in "Imagine Cup 2007" on the use of information technologies in education, while the number of participants in the finals in Seoul made over 200 from 57 countries. "Imagine Cup 2008" is held in the following categories: software development, software algorithms, software interfaces, computer game creation, photos, short videofilms, creation of IT infrastructures, "Save Professor" game contest (students must help Professor Khoshimi to overcome difficulties by creating small software packages), and creation of portable devices. The competition in all categories, except for software development, is held online. The prize fund of "Imagine Cup" finals is 200 thousand dollars. The Armenian stage of the 2008 competition is held under the patronage of the Union of IT Enterprises of Armenia, and Bi Line, Unicomp and Synopsys companies.

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