An enthusiastic Northern Caribbean University (NCU) Microsoft Imagine Cup Software team left the island yesterday to compete in the world final in Cairo, Egypt, after grabbing the top titles in three qualification rounds.

The NCU team of Shawn McLean, Trevor Williams, Derron Brown and Dwayne Samuels, under the guidance of coaches Halzen Smith and Henry Osborne, outdesigned the teams in the National, Caribbean and Central and South American competitions for university students.

Going International

They were crowned national champions after defeating the University of Technology team earlier this year. They then moved on to the Caribbean, where Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago were among their competitors and, after emerging as the Caribbean winner, they whupped the top teams from South and Central America in the multi-country Americas round.

The team, which is representing Latin America in the world final, will go up against 66 countries in the software development category from July 3-8.

Very confident

Osborne said he was confident the team would be victorious as the members had done their homework following the preliminary rounds.

"We have a good project and I know that it will stand out in this competition," he said.

"In addition, we have done our research on the other teams, so we are looking at what aspect of our project we can sell more to make it really stand out to the judges."

Team member Samuels said he was elated that the team had reached the final stage and that, with hard work and their usual devoted effort, they would command the top spot in the competition.

To eradicate poverty

This year, Microsoft instructed the Imagine Cup teams to address one of the eight United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals.

The NCU team is focusing on developing software which will help address UN Millennium Development Goal number one, which is to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.

This year's theme is 'Imagine A World Where Technology Helps Solve The Toughest Problems Facing Us Today'.

The Northern Caribbean University Imagine Cup team of (from left) Henry Osborne, coach, Derron Brown, Shawn McLean, Dwayne Samuels, Trevor Williams and Halzen Smith, coach, prepare to leave the island for Egypt from the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

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