It's no secret that some of the world's greatest ideas came from the creative minds of young people. Indeed, Albert Einstein spent his childhood wondering about what made a compass move, and he accomplished his greatest achievements in his early 20s.

Microsoft has long recognized the importance of young people and ingenuity, and five years ago launched The Imagine Cup, an annual technology competition open to high school and college students across the entire planet. The competition consists of teams of students working together, optionally with the help of a mentor, with teams competing to solve real-world technology problems. The competition is divided up into regions with local competitions, with the World Finals competition this year being held in Paris, France from July 3 through 8, 2008.

Last year's Imagine Cup involved over 100,000 students from over 100 countries, and was won by a group of students from Thailand. Last year's theme dealt with using technology to enhance education. The winning team built a book reading and translation system both for underprivileged people in Thailand who are unable to read, as well as for literate students who are unable to read foreign languages.

Next week are the US finals, where the winners of local and regional competitions will compete in Los Angeles on April 20 through 22, 2008 at The Orpheum Theater. The winners of the US competition will then go on to compete in the World Cup in Paris in July.

This year’s theme is The Environment. A press release from Microsoft puts it this way: “Imagine a world where technology solves a country’s water shortage, provides a cleaner source of fuel or reduces the demand for energy. Imagine coming up with a concept that could help solve some of the world’s biggest environmental issues and winning big for coming up with the idea.”

This year, $180,000 will be at stake, divided among the winners of nine categories. These categories are Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, Project Hoshimi, IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film, and Interface Design.

Of course, there’s more to the competition than just money. These students are building actual applications and technologies that solve real-world problems. Many students in the past have taken their final projects and started successful businesses around their products.