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A dynamic trio of young techie tycoons from Bahrain have returned from a Russian adventure more determined than ever to succeed in the world of entrepreneurship and invention.
Team Buzzlers – namely Muharraq’s Amna Hafiz Muhammad, 24, Fatema Almannaie, 24, and Talha Hafiz Muhammad, 21, – ‘bundled’ their ideas to develop a winning application that helped put Bahrain on the map at the Imagine Cup 2013 Worldwide Finals which took place recently in St Petersburg.
They formed one of 87 teams making the journey to the finals with a total of 309 student participants representing 71 different countries.
Amna, is in the final year of studying for a BA in computer science at the University of Bahrain. The team manager and Windows store app and Windows mobile app developer, said: “Even though we couldn’t return with the cup, we came back with a lifetime experience, an amazing blend of entertainment, socialising and learning.
“We learned things we could never have learned in any other way. And, wow, we met some of the greatest achievers in our field; it was like a dream to actually meet them.”
After the team won the national version of the competition during February energy was focused on developing the application further to be able to compete on a global level.
Bundle is an application that allows users to make accounts to create and share collections of links to any websites, blogs and social media medium, alongside an ability to share uploaded documents or photos. The users can also view other people’s Bundles.
Fatema, a fresh graduate from the university’s computer science department, also worked as the team’s Windows store app developer. She said: “Although we were so excited before the competition, it still exceeded our expectations. It turned out to be a special kind of experience.
“I may have regretted not participating in previous competitions but I’m so glad for reaching the world finals and will absolutely give it another try next year.”
Talha, now in the third year of a BA course in computer science, was the group’s website developer, and said: “It was a wonderful experience and we are proud of it and hopeful to do even better next time.
“We want to tell fellow students to be always ready to learn new things, to participate in such activities and have faith in their knowledge.”
Apart from the main roles mentioned the trio all worked together passionately on many other aspects of the competition like making business plans, promotional videos and preparing effective presentations. There were many other challenges and problems that they had to face and solve as a team, they added.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is the world’s most prestigious student technology competition, bringing together innovators from all over the world.
“I am very impressed by our Bahraini team and all the Bahraini student competitors in this year’s Imagine Cup. They clearly demonstrated the amazing things that can happen when we mix education, intuition, creativity and drive to transform technology into global solutions,” said Tareq Hijazi, regional country manager of Microsoft Bahrain and Oman.”
Tamkeen chief executive, Mahmood Hashim Al-Kooheji, also congratulated Team Buzzlers for showing ‘great perseverance and dedication’.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is regarded as the world’s premier competition for student technologists to create innovative projects and ultimately bring the ideas to market.
A group of students from the United Kingdom won $50,000 and lifted the trophy with their mobile phone application soundSYNK, which creates impromptu social networks that allow people to stream music simultaneously through a group of phones, effectively creating a symphony of speakers.
The new session of Microsoft Imagine Cup was announced to take place in July 2014 in Seattle.
