Saving the world from hunger, preventing drought, creating speech where there was none; all sound like far-off solutions to existing problems. For the students competing in the Microsoft-sponsored Imagine Cup, a sort of high tech, geeky science fair, these are issued to be solved right now.
More than 350 students from 75 countries are in Sydney, Australia competing in the Worldwide Finals. They're charged with solving some of the world’s most pressing social problems -- hunger, the environment, disease and energy use, among others.
Now in its 10th year, the students use latest technologies as their tools, including Windows 8, Windows Phone, Kinect for Xbox 360, Bing, Windows 7 Touch, Visual Studio and more.
Team BoddyMusic from Argentina created a classroom application for Kinect for Xbox 360 that lets people with disabilities learn about music. The Serbian Team CatchCake created a program to assist visually impaired people by using radar to alert them of objects in their way. Team Symbiosis of Greece designed software to provide augmented reality therapy for Alzheimer’s patients.
Click through the gallery to see what some of the other teams designed in the competition.
If you could solve one problem with technology, what would it be? Let us know in the comments.
Imagine Cup
Team Quadsquad from Ukraine showcases its project, Enable Talk, a software solution that transforms sign language into a form of verbal communication through sensor-equipped gloves and a mobile device.
You can see a full list of all the finalists .
This story originally published on Mashable .