TWELVE TEAMS, chosen from a final entry of 20, will compete in this year's Imagine Cup Ireland competition final on April 10th, with the winner going on to an international final in Paris in August. The theme for this year's cup is "technology and a sustainable environment".

The software competition remains the centrepiece of both the national and international competition, but students can enter a broad range of additional competitions within the cup, including algorithm design, embedded development, short film, photography, interface design, and new this year, game design. Liam Cronin, academic engagement manager with Microsoft Ireland, says registrations for this year's Ireland heats more than doubled - from 195 last year to 520 this year.

He attributes the interest in good part to the success of the two Irish teams last year, with both ending up finalists in the international competition: a Dublin Institute of Technology team came second in web design, and the Maynooth team, which was one of three to be awarded the Business Accelerator programme in Silicon Valley and remained in the running for the three overall finalists until the very end.

Cronin says Ireland did so well in its first year of competing in the cup that it is now seen as a model for new countries entering the competition for the first time.

Microsoft offices in Denmark and Finland are in regular touch with Cronin, as their countries will be this year's neophytes going to the final in Paris.

The final 12 in this year's Irish Cup include teams from IT Blanchardstown, Griffith College, NUI Maynooth (two teams), ITT Dublin, DIT, University of Ulster Coleraine, Dundalk IT, Carlow IT, Sligo IT, and the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (two teams).