Microsoft has awarded finalist positions to a series of innovative software projects put together by student teams in the US leg of the Imagine Cup awards. The event started in January, and promised to award students - who take on tough social problems with Windows 8 and Kinect on Xbox - with cash prizes, Microsoft hardware, and a sizable donation to their university. Now, students have been sorted out into four teams in each of four categories, and will face off at the world finals in July.

In the Game Design Windows/Xbox category, a team named Dr. Fishbowl made an unnamed game that allows players to create a model of sustainability in an environment that uses limited resources. Team Drexel Dragon won the Game Design Mobile category, with a title called Mash Dash for Windows phones, that helps teach mathematics as you play. And a team called FlashFood (above) won first place in the overall Software Design category, by putting together an app that connects websites and smartphones to help families in need find donated food on a real-time basis.

Other runner-ups include an app that uses a sleeping pad hooked up to a PC and a Windows Phone to help monitor infant health, a mobile game about fighting easily communicable diseases, and a game called Children of War, in which you play as a Ugandan child, sneaking past rebels and other dangers in an attempt to find safety.