The world is asking for your help/ Can you hear it?

People are starving. Diseases ravage communities and no matter how hard they try, some people cannot get a basic education. The environment is in trouble and we have to help the world develop in a sustainable way. It seems like too much to take on. But we can't just throw up our hands and give up. Answers could be found in any one of a thousand ideas that happen every day. Solutions might be in the next few lines of code, a photo or even a simple game that catches on and teaches the world a lesson.

These are the first steps to doing something that really matters. Technology can be a force multiplier on the ideas and that's why the Imagine Cup happens every year.

We need everyone - software programmers, hardware developers, artists and dreamers - to imagine a better world - then make it happen. Over 150,000 students from over 100 countries will come together and compete to help find the answers. And no matter who comes up with the best solutions - everybody wins.

One World. Unlimited Possibilities.
For 2009 the Imagine Cup in challenging the world's most talented students to "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today". For some this will be using technology to help a brother or sister get an education and for others it will be about entirely new approach for medicine or finding ways to counter the inequalities that exists between genders around the world. It may be ensuring the sustainability of our planet and might even be as focused as universal primary education. Yeah, it's that important.

In 2009, the Imagine Cup world finals will be held in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East and the great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments. Winners will find that this magical nation holds the key to history, ancient civilization and perhaps the future of technology.

And oh yes ... there's also the pyramids!