UH-Hilo team wins national award

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Students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Monday won the National Team Award at Microsoft’s 2013 U.S. Imagine Cup Finals Demo Day in Silicon Valley. The top 10 U.S. teams pitched their ideas and solutions to investors, entrepreneurs, and technology professionals for a chance to win cash prizes and support for their businesses.

The UH-Hilo team is Kayton Summers, Ryder Donahue, Mike Purvis and Wallace Hamada.

“We are proud to unveil the team that will represent the U.S. at the Worldwide Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia,” said spokeswoman Laura Kim. “The 2013 National Team is Team P‘oli Ahu of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.”

In the United States this year, Microsoft hosted a set of programs to help student teams create successful businesses, including a virtual accelerator, a Startup Boot Camp in Silicon Valley, and Monday’s U.S. Imagine Cup Finals Demo Day.

Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is the world’s most prestigious student technology competition, bringing together student innovators from all over the world. Imagine Cup is how Microsoft encourages students like you to make a difference in the world through the power of technology.

Judges are typically industry experts, journalists, sponsors, educators, and Microsoft staff from around the world.

The Imagine Cup 2013 Worldwide Finals will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia July 8-11. The location of the Imagine Cup has rotated from year to year. The finals have been held in locations all across the world, including Spain (2003), Brazil (2004), Japan (2005), India (2006), Korea (2007), France (2008), Egypt (2009), Poland (2010), and United States (2011) and Australia (2012). The Imagine Cup 2013 will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia.