Four Saudi students from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) have advanced into the finals of Imagine Cup's contest in Paris next month. Talal Al-Asmari, Omar Al-Amodi, Eyad Al-Sabai, and Yasser Suliman from Software Engineering Department at KFUPM will represent Saudi Arabia in the global competition. All four Saudis stood first at the national stage held in Jeddah last week. The Imagine Cup is the global technology competition which promotes and rewards creativity and excellence in the field of development and design software. The competition, however, was designed to encourage students and young developers to apply their imagination, passion and creativity to visualize a better technological world. This year's competition was held under the theme ”Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.” Alongside with the Saudi team, five international teams from different countries advanced to the finals in France. The winners will receive free travel and accommodation from the organizing company. Top three prize winners will receive $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 respectively. The four Saudi students who formed an “Enviro-mates” team won the first spot after designing an electronic device supported with a special software to detect environment changes across the world. “Through this device, data about the status of the environment can be sent to the headquarter before sending them again to receivers that can be government bodies or private sectors,” Talal Al-Asmari said. The project which was named Air Quality Monitoring System can also send warnings if any climate change or pollution occur at any place. “It works through some sensors that can be distributed to detect changes, analyze data and send them to the headquarter,“ Talal said. About 100,000 students from different countries registered in the competition and over 500 Saudi students represented Saudi universities and colleges in the contest's first stage. The second place in the national stage went to Effat College for girls when the team “For My Environment“ designed an interactive website creating an awareness among children about environment protection. Adel Al-Masarani, head of Developers in Microsoft, who was among the judges' panel, said the competition among the Saudis was too tough and all participants presented great ideas and projects. “Winners are representing the new generation of the Kingdom with their creativity in technology innovations that can make a difference in the world,” Masarani said. __
