Meet the 2018 World Finals Judges!
Published Jan 08 2019 07:03 PM 5,352 Views
First published on MSDN on Jul 20, 2018

Next week, some of the brightest and most innovative students from across the world are traveling to Microsoft headquarters to compete in the 16 th annual Imagine Cup World Finals. 49 teams from 33 countries will go through multiple rounds of competition culminating in the World Championship on July 25th at 9:00am PT , where the winner will crowned.

Over the past 16 years, nearly two million students across the globe have participated in the Imagine Cup, bringing their innovative ideas and passion for technology to a platform designed to enable them to turn their dreams into reality. This year, in addition to the first-place team having a chance to win up to $100,000 USD and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, three additional special awards were introduced to encourage even greater innovation among competitors. These awards, aimed to represent the current state of digital transformation, will be given to the best projects in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Mixed Reality, each with a $15,000 prize.

The Imagine Cup aligns with Microsoft’s core mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, by giving every student developer the opportunity to bring their unique technology ideas and solutions to the table. Students this year responded to the challenge by submitting outstanding projects using a wide variety of Microsoft cloud services and will make choosing winners a difficult task for the judges! Follow in their journey with the World Finals Online Experience as they head to Microsoft to compete next week.


Meet the World Championship Competition judges:

















Erica Brescia is the co-founder and COO of Bitnami, the leading provider of packaged applications for any platform. She also serves as an Investment Partner in X Factor Ventures, funding and empowering women-led businesses.



Anil Dash is a technology entrepreneur, startup adviser, and CEO of Fog Creek Software and Glitch. He is passionate about advocating for accessible technology that benefits those most in need.



Peggy Johnson , Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, brings an extensive engineering and technology background to judging the competition. She has been recognized as a powerful leading woman in technology and business by multiple organizations.


Special guest and Olympic snowboarding gold medalist, Chloe Kim , will also be at the Imagine Cup Finals talking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and offering inspiration to the competitors.  Watch below to get to know the rest of our competition judges.





Which team will take home the trophy? Watch the Championship show live on July 25 th at 9:00am PT to find out who will win the 2018 Imagine Cup!
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