KEY POINTS:
Microsoft's annual Imagine Cup competition tempts technology students from around the world with the chance to win cash prizes for coming up with innovative software and hardware solutions.
The catch? Their developments must be based on Microsoft's software and technology platforms. This year's theme was: "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment".
Canterbury University's Team Phoenix and their Taxibus carbon emission-reducing public transport system beat other New Zealand teams for a place in the software design section of the international competition.
They failed to reach the finals and the section was won by Australia's entry.
According to the judges, the best six software ideas for saving the planet were:
SOAK (Australia)
The Smart Operational Agriculture Toolkit (SOAK) project helps farmers use their land sustainably. It combines environmental sensors, for measuring factors such as soil moisture, with a graphic computer display and controls equipment such as sprinkler systems.
Ecologger (Brazil)
An interactive "decision support system" that brings together environmental data supplied by a global community of users. The data can be viewed over various platforms including mobile devices, digital TV and the web. The aim is to "increases users' environmental consciousness, stimulating them to actively participate in the process of achieving a sustainable environment".
CooTrading (China)
A web-based application to educate people in developing countries and rural areas about daily decisions they can make to reduce their household carbon footprint through more effective energy use.
Green Watering (Hungary)
A project designed to reduce the amount of water wasted through plant irrigation. The system controls watering levels by collecting weather data over the internet and monitoring soil moisture levels.
Smart Containers (Portugal)
This makes vegetable oil recycling more efficient by using home oil recycling containers installed with sensors which sends an alert to the recycling company when the container is nearly full.
Energy Consumption Manager (Slovakia)
Details of a household's electricity use are sent wirelessly to a home PC. The software analyses power use, displays the information on screen and suggests ways to cut electricity use.
