Technology Report - Students Compete to Find Tech Solutions for World Problems
科技报道 - 微软创新杯带领学生们以科技解决世界棘手问题
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
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参加微软创新杯总决赛。他们带来了一些使用科技解决世界棘手问题的想法。
Microsoft education director Suzi Levine says the nine-year-old program began mainly as a competition to create technology.
微软教育总监苏茜·莱文表示，这项已经具有9年历史的大赛最初的主要目的是科技创新。
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."
莱文：“当我们意识到学生们确实非常希望他们能有目标的创新，我们介绍了联合国千年发展目标来激励他们，并建议他们以此作为创新目标。”
New sources for ideas this year included intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.
今年创新选题的新来源包括政府组织和非政府组织。
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."
莱文：“在过去的一年里，我们还推出了创新杯求解计划知识库，政府组织和非政府组织可以将一些他们希望学生们提供解决方案的科技挑战提交到这个知识库。”
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.
微软表示，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.
莱文女士说，几支参赛团队都受到了时事的启发，包括去年泰国的水灾。
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."
莱文：“一支来自泰国的参赛团队名为NewKrean，他们开发了一种Windows Phone 7应用程序，可以将自己的当前位置广播给社交网络上的好友，这样就更容易获救。”
注：Windows Phone 7：微软最新发布的手机操作系统。
The NewKrean team from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand named their app Terra.
NewKrean团队来自泰国朱拉隆功大学，他们将这款应用程序命名为Terra。
Suzi Levine says there were also ideas from Egypt inspired by the revolution that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February.
莱文表示，还有一些来自埃及，受二月份推翻穆巴拉克革命启发的想法。
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.”
莱文：“其中一个想法是将蓝牙作为推特（Twitter）的替代物，这样如果政府关闭了互联网，还能拥有庞大的社交网络分布。
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.
下一届的颁奖典礼将在澳大利亚举行，2012年创新杯报名工作将于周五开始。此外，微软宣布了一项300万美元的计划，帮助创新杯获胜者进一步开发他们的项目。
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. You can learn English with our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. |