Team Ireland Celebrates a Third Place Win in Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals

NUI Maynooth students Matthew McCann, KC Grant and Jack Gallagher today celebrated in the wake of their third place win in the World Citizenship category in the world finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup in Seattle. They represented Ireland with their AccessEarth App, which provides up-to-date, reliable data on the accessibility of buildings all over the world for those with impaired mobility.

“The AccessEarth team represented Ireland in the world finals with tremendous success and everyone at Microsoft Ireland joins them in celebrating this fantastic result. Not only is the concept underpinning the App a fundamentally important one, but its execution is particularly noteworthy as well, with immense thought clearly given to creating a design that the user can operate intuitively. Those who download the App can enhance its functionality by rating the accessibility of buildings near them, meaning that this is a project which is truly boundless in scope and admirably collaborative in nature. Well done to the team for creating such a phenomenal App, and further congratulations for doing us proud in Seattle,” said Clare Dillon, Developer Lead, Microsoft Ireland.

The AccessEarth team received a $5,000 cheque in recognition of their achievement in the competition.

“We had an incredible time at the Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals,” said KC Grant, one of the creators of the AccessEarth App. “This competition facilitates innovation and new thinking, and joining together with teams from 34 countries around the world for the final was a heady experience that has stimulated us to think about how we can further develop and enhance AccessEarth for our users. We are thrilled with the result we achieved in Seattle and the platform it has given us to reach out to a worldwide community of people with mobility impairment who could benefit from the App.”

Microsoft Imagine Cup is part sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland. Further information on the Microsoft Imagine Cup can be seen on www.imaginecup.com.