In a little bit over 24 hours time, two Sri Lankan teams ... one in the Software Design Category and the other in the Short Film Category are heading to the beautiful city of Paris, France to take part in the Imagine Cup 2008 World Festival. As always it is Imagine Cup World Festival is a big ... I mean really gigantic event ... and as Tommy Boy says it's going to be the brightest spot on the planet for a whole week. Young champions from all over the world are going to be in Paris and I have doubt that this is going to absolutely amazing ... like last year, year before and years before that. But it's going to be bigger and better for sure.

Software Team

Software Design team 'Sasrutha' who won the local competition will be presenting there solution 'Haritha Prayathna'. Team is from University of Moratuwa. Dasuni and Supunmali are from the Faculty of Information Technology and Chethiya and Sapumal (Leader) are from the Faculty of Engineering. They will be competing with 60 other teams on site. After the Local event they have practiced their presentation many times and perfected the solution and they are going to face an international panel(s) of judges and also going to face some tough questions ... I think that's cool because these folks are ready for anything.

Short Film Team

Short Film team who made the film 'Friends' also consists of four members, Buddhika (Leader) and Malika are from SLIIT while Gimantha is from Tec Sri Lanka and Salinga is from National Institute of Technical Education of Sri Lanka. They have made it to the world top 6 teams in the Short Film category. On site they have a 36 hours challenge.

Apart from the onsite competitions this is going to be a action packed fun week as there are many activities planned. This is the fourth time Sri Lanka participates in Imagine Cup. 2005 - Yokohama - Japan, 2006 - Delhi - India, 2007 - Seoul - Korea. Folks! ... take a look at these 8 faces very well, because they are representing Sri Lanka in the Olympics of Technology ... the Imagine Cup. Best Wishes to both teams. I'm planning to write about the event live from France throughout the week.

Woo! oo! ... France ... Here we come ...

Session 1: Game Developmentwith Microsoft XNA Game Studio
Intorduction to Microsoft XNA Game studiowith Visual Studio 2008. Basic features,exmples and games.

Speaker: Uditha Bandara

Session 2: Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka Winning Teams Solution
Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka winning team is in the process of preparing to face the world finals in Paris, France in July. They will be presenting their winning solution @ this months user group meeting.

by: team Sasrutha (Sapumal, Chethiya, Dasuni & Supunmali)

Date: 4th June 2008
Time: 6.00 PM - 8.00 PM
Venue: Microsoft Sri Lanka, No. 42, 11th Floor, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 02
Entrance: FREE