Bitmasters with their exploitsat the Microsoft Imagine Cupworld finals awards ceremony in Redmond, Seattle

„„By Indika Sakalasooriya (Reporting from Redmond, Seattle) BitMasters, the Moratuwa University Engineering Faculty team which took part in the finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2016 held in Redmond Seattle last week, created history winning the second place in the Innovation Category. The awards ceremony was held on last Thursday at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Seattle, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gracing the event. Perhaps this could be the biggest win any Sri Lankan team has so far achieved in an international student technology competition.

“We are extremely happy that we were able to take the Sri Lankan flag to the international stage at the biggest student technology competition of the world. We are super excited. Hard work of two years well paid off,” BitMasters said

The team consisted of Lakmal Buddika Meegahapola, Chanaka Lakmal, Chathusha Wijenayake and Charith Eranga. While Lakmal, Chanaka and Charith are in their third year in the Department of Computer Science, Chathusha is a third-year student of Department of Civil Engineering. BitMasters presented ‘Amplus’ an intelligent digital signage solution for the competition under the Innovation category, which they believe could revolutionize the global advertising industry. According to them, the global digital signage business is poised to be a US $ 20 billion industry by 2020.

Meanwhile, the first place under the innovation category went to team ENTy of Romania and the third place to team HealthX of USA.Microsoft Imagine Cup 2016 competition was held under three categories— Games, Innovation and Global Citizenship. The top three teams in these categories received—US $ 50, 000 (first place), US $ 10, 000 (second place) and US $ 5, 000 (third place).

The three first-place winning teams moved on to the Championship round on last Friday, where team ENTy from Romania was crowned as the Imagine Cup World Champion. Team ENTy will have the opportunity to have a oneto- one mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella