That is the mission of the Imagine Cup launched by Microsoft in 2003: 1 million students have responded, 129 teams, including 23 French teams, have won prizes, and in 2012, the SNCF is banking on it.

One challenge, six categories.

'Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems': 300 students (mainly from engineering schools) have taken up the challenge in six categories. Three of them are at an international level: Software Design, Game Design, Windows Phone Challenge. The other three are nationwide in scope: Best Design, Best Start-up Project, Open Data & Data Visualisation

The Open Data category, France

is sponsored by the SNCF. We were on the panel that selected entries at the end of March, and the panel that selected the winners on 3 May. During the Open Data France final, the SNCF encouraged the teams by giving away InterRail Pass tokens for free travel across Europe, and 20 gift vouchers for return trips from Paris to London.

And the winners are...

The 5 students from Toulouse won first prize in the category. Their project, CapStreet, convinced the judges. The concept involves giving people with reduced mobility an application that can work out the best route for them and help them find out about places they are interested in and accessibility using the Open Data programmes of the world's major cities.

The SNCF at the heart of the world of innovation

The SNCF wants to anticipate future passenger expectations and trends, and is looking for inspiration from within and without our organisation. We run brainstorming sessions with internet-users in our Labs, support specialist start-up projects associated with transport or the web, and are now working with the much prized community of developers. We have been in discussions with them (on data.sncf.com) to target the data to open first and to make sure that we produce a win-win situation for all. And developers got involved!
Now 5 sets of data are open, a first application has come online ('KANjariv' which lets you find all the services you might need near a station at the click of a mouse: restaurants, shops, museums, etc.) Discussions, however, continue.

Other initiatives are moving forward at the same time. The OpenApp competition organised by SNCF Transilien has produced over 1400 new ideas! The judges have selected around 100 of these and the Internet vote is taking them nearer to being turned into some amazing applications.
The SNCF's commitment to the prestigious Imagine Cup competition is increasing this momentum and reinforcing our role at the heart of the world of innovation in France.

Watch this space on www.imaginecup.com See also 'The SNCF goes Open Data'