VOA慢速英语:Students Compete to Find Tech Solutions for World Problems

Hundreds of students from around the world gathered in New York City last week for the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals. They came to present their ideas for using technology to solve world problems.
上周，数百名来自世界各地的学生齐聚纽约市参加微软创新杯决赛。他们纷纷表达了自己使用科技解决世界问题的想法。

Microsoft education director Suzi Levine says the nine-year-old program began mainly as a competition to create technology.
微软教育主任Suzi Levine称，该项目已有九年的历史，最初主要是为了鼓励创新科技的竞赛。

SUZI LEVINE: "When we realized that students really actually want to have a purpose for what they’re creating, we introduced the idea of inspiring them with the UN Millennium Development Goals and suggesting that they use those for their muse."
Suzi Levine：“当我们意识到，学生们其实希望他们的创新有一定的目的性，所以我们鼓励他们结合联合国千年发展目标，让他们想出使用科技解决这些问题的方法。”

New sources for ideas this year included intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.
今年提出创新想法的团体包括政府间组织和非政府组织。

SUZI LEVINE: "This past year we also rolled out something called the Imagine Cup Solve This library, where IGOs, NGOs and noNPRofits can submit some of the technical challenges that they would like students to consider for their solutions."
Suzi Levine：“在过去的一年中我们还推出了创新杯求解计划知识库(Imagine Cup Solve This library)，政府间组织和非政府组织可以提出一些技术挑战，供学生们考虑用于自己的解决方案。”

Microsoft says over three hundred fifty thousand high school and college students registered for this year's competition. Judges chose more than four hundred of them to attend the finals.
微软称，超过35万名大中专学生报名参加了今年的比赛。考官选拔了其中四百多人参加总决赛。

Ms. Levine says several teams were inspired by current events, including floods last year in Thailand.
Levine称，几个团队是由受时事的激励产生的，包括去年泰国的洪水。

SUZI LEVINE: “One from Thailand [was] called NewKrean, where they created a Windows Phone 7 application that allows you to broadcast your location to your social network of friends so that you can be more easily rescued."
Suzi Levine：“一支来自泰国的参赛团队名为NewKrean，他们创建了Windows Phone 7软件程序，你可以在社交网络上向你的朋友播放你的位置，这样你就更容易获救。”

The NewKrean team from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand named their app Terra.
泰国朱拉隆功大学(Chulalongkorn University)的NewKrean将他们的软件命名为Terra。

Suzi Levine says there were also ideas from Egypt inspired by the revolution that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February.
Suzi Levine称，受到二月份推翻穆巴拉克总统的革命的启发，埃及也提出了一些想法。

SUZI LEVINE: “One was to use Bluetooth as sort of a Twitter equivalent so that if the government shuts down the Internet, you actually can still have a massive social distribution.”
Suzi Levine：“其中一个想法是将蓝牙设备作为Twitter的替代品，这样的话，如果政府关闭了互联网，你仍然可以在广泛的范围内传递信息。”

Students competed in nine categories. For example, in software design the top prize of twenty-five thousand dollars went to Team Hermes from Ireland. The students developed a device for cars to collect information on road conditions, driving behavior and traffic incidents.
学生们在九个比赛类别中展开竞逐。在软件设计类别中，来自爱尔兰的Hermes团队赢得了2.5万美元的最高奖项。该团队学生开发了一种收集路况、驾驶行为和交通事故一类信息的装置。

A team from Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University won first place in the embedded development category. They developed a network of wireless devices to help plot the safest escape routes during a fire.
一支来自台湾国立清华大学的团队在嵌入式开发类别中荣获第一名。他们开发了一种无线设备网络，能够在火灾期间帮助规划最安全的逃生路线。

Next year’s awards ceremony will take place in Australia. Registration for Imagine Cup twenty-twelve opened Friday. Also, Microsoft announced plans for a three million dollar program to help Imagine Cup winners further develop their projects.
明年的颁奖仪式将在澳大利亚举行。2012年创新杯参赛申请注册工作已经于周五开始。同时，微软宣布提供300万美元，帮助创新杯获胜者进一步开展自己的项目。