Students from Arizona State Universitywon top honors last weekat the Imagine Cup finals in the United States.Microsoft Corporation organizes the yearly competition.The Imagine Cup asks studentsto use their imaginations and their love of technologyto solve some of the world's biggest problems.More than one hundred thousand studentsin the United States alone registered for the event this year.Twenty-two teams were chosen to take partin the finals in Seattle, Washington.Team FlashFood won first placein the Imagine Cup's Software Design competition.Eric Lehnhardt is the leader of the team.Eric Lehnhardt: "The idea is this,that there's a lot of food that goes to waste from hotels,from catered events and from restaurants.And this food is, it's perishable food,so it's the kind of food that can't normally be handledby food recovery organizations like food banks or food pantries."Eric Lehnhardt says food insecurity affects a lot of people,especially in large population centers.Eric Lehnhardt: "They don't necessarily knowwhere their next meal is coming from,or that they have to make decisionsbetween paying their bills and whetheror not they're going to eat for a day."The FlashFood team has developed a way to get leftoverand unwanted food into the hands of people who need it.Eric Lehnhardt: "It's a mobile application and websitethat makes it possible for restaurant managersto enter information about food that they would liketo donate into our network- sending a notification then to a team of volunteer driverswho can go pick up the leftover foodand take it into a community where those who are livingin food insecurity can receive that donation."Richard Filley is director of the Engineering Projectsin Community Service program at Arizona State.The FlashFood team is one of the program's thirty-seven projects.Mr. Filley says winning the Imagine Cup'sSoftware design category is a major honor.But, he says, it is not what energizes his students.RICHARD FILLEY: "We have students that want to change the worldand make a difference and we're very serious about that."Microsoft is celebrating the tenth year of the Imagine Cup.Mark Hindsbo is a vice president with the company.He says the competition has changed a lot since it first began.MARK HINDSBO: "It was very computer science focused.Almost all of the students had a computer science background.And the projects themselves were very computer science focused."Mr. Hindsbo says the students who competenow have different areas of expertise.For example, Team FlashFood had a studentwho studied biomedical engineering.Another student studied marketing and sustainability.Yet another studied material science and engineering.MARK HINDSBO: "The projects are much better,much stronger much more exciting as a resultbecause they play off each other's skills."And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report,written by June Simms.Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at 51voa.com.Join us again next week for moreon the Imagine Cup competition and this year's winning teams.