A sending-off ceremony held for participants in 2016 Imagine Cup World, the world’s largest IT contest for students, sponsored by Microsoft
Commemorative photo
On Friday, July 15, 2016, a sending-off ceremony was held at the Empowerment Studio for the team (Ph.D. Program in Empowerment Informatics (EMP) fifth-year students Koichi Murata and Shota Ekuni and second-year student Yasunari Asakura, and second-year student in the Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering Akira Uehara) chosen to participate in 2016 Imagine Cup World, the world’s largest IT contest for students, sponsored by Microsoft.
The sending-off ceremony began with a description by Microsoft of the contest and its prizes, for the benefit of participants, followed by English-language presentations of the winning works by the student teams. Then, University of Tsukuba Vice President for Education Makoto Ito delivered words of encouragement to the students taking part in the competition. Lastly, Prof. Hiroo Iwata, EMP Program Leader, delivered a closing message and encouraged the students to do their best. Later, a commemorative photograph was taken together with banners on which were written messages from previous Japanese teams competing in Imagine Cup.
This ceremony, which welcomed about 30 attendees from Microsoft, the University, and the media, served to encourage the student team as they departed for the world competition. The student team is sure to demonstrate its maximum abilities as it takes part in this competition on the world stage.
Words of encouragement from University Vice President Ito
A presentation on the work by the competing team