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The competition, now in its sixth year, tests the technical prowess of students from across the globe by setting them a themed challenge.

This year students have been challenged to "imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment", with the eventual winner claiming a $180,000 prize.

This year's UK winners include 23-year-old Ben Nunney from the University of Greewich and Dominic Green, 21, from Manchester Metropolitan University, who teamed up to produce EnviroMatch, a series of interactive games that aim to educate children about the environment.

One of the games involves controlling a man to run around a house turning all the lights and gadgets off. The game has a running counter showing children how much energy is wasted before they switch all the electronics off. "At the end it tells you how many Xbox games you could have bought [in a year] with the money spent on wasted electricity," Nunney told PC Pro at today's UK finals.

Nunney claims EnviroMatch has gone down well with children. "We've had the product tested in schools - we've taken the feedback and incorporated it into the project," he said. "Teachers were saying you need to make it as interactive as possible."

Phil Woolas, Minister of State for the Environment, praised the winners. "We'll have to use innovation in technology to become much more efficient in the way we use power," he claimed at the event. "Personal behaviour is responsible for 40% of the UK's CO2 gases."

Sexy subject

Microsoft claims competitions such as The Imagine Cup are key to encouraging students to join the computing industry. "There's a 30-50% drop off in applications for computer science subjects," said Mark Taylor, director of developer and platform evangelism at Microsoft. "We're trying to bring computer science back with some sex appeal."

Taylor claims the students aren't entirely motivated by the $180,000 prize and a trip to Paris for the final, however. "They have conviction about the core topic," said Taylor. "It's not just about winning the prize and going off to Paris. Any company that doesn't give airtime to this kind of thinking is mad."

The other UK winners are Luis Hernandez-Munoz, Monica Jaime and Victor Landassuri-Moreno from the University of Birmingham for their Intelligent Recycling Station, and Jason Parlour from Thames Valley University in for his What's Your Carbon Footprint photography project.