Team Ifrit Salsa, representing The University of Houston, has qualified to compete in the final round of Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2010 US Competition in Washington DC. The team won a spot in the Game Design competition with its game "RoboRecycler", judged by Microsoft to be one of the top 5 entries in the nation.The UH team is composed of Computer Science graduate student Daniel Biediger and undergraduate students Alaa Gharandoq, Jesus Hernandez, and Arifur Sabeth.

By qualifying, the Ifrit Salsa students have earned an all expense paid trip on April 23, 2010. They will be competing for a position in the International Finals in Poland, later in the year. They carry on a legacy of strong Imagine Cup competition by UH Computer Science teams. In 2008, the UH, CS team finished in the top 20 in the international Imagine Cup competition. In 2009, the UH team ranked in the top 150 (the top 20 teams were not announced). For the 2010 competition, just 5 teams were selected nationally, and the University of Houston has claimed one of the spots. The team is supported by the Game Development and Game Art instructors Dr. Olin Johnson, Dr. Zhigang Deng, Dr. Chang Yun and Mr. Jose Baez.

If you are interested in gaming coursework in Computer Science,  please contact Chang Yun.

Visit the UH Interactive Game Development website here.