Take 370 geeks from 61 countries and put them in one room in Paris and what do you have?
A competition to save the planet.
The Imagine Cup is what has become known as the world cup of software design.
IT students from around the globe pit their skills against each other with the aim of designing a programme to help the environment.
And yes the Kiwis were there competing in France, where it has to be said - other teams have not done that well just recently.
Representing us was Team Phoenix from Canterbury University.
Team member Louis Savers said the day before the competition proper began “It's sort of like Disneyland really, so many people…I think we are doing really well, as long as we keep positive we will do a really good job.”
The Kiwi team’s plan is based on a new revolutionary form of transport - "imagine if you could be picked up from your doorstep and taken to wherever you wanted for less than it would cost if you took your car.”
In a small windowless room the kiwis have 20 minutes to impress.
They are up against a room full of students, all pitching ideas with the common theme that what they are doing in here will hopefully mean the rest of us going about our daily lives for business or just the pleasure of sightseeing, will have less impact on the environment.
But how did the kiwis get here? The story starts in Christchurch with an idea born from petrol poverty.
Back home in their flat team member Janina Voigt explained the petrol crisis which led to their trip to Paris “really we can’t afford it any more and we filled the car the other day and it was 85 dollars, I remember when it was 45.”
So the four of them took on the ultimate commuter problem.
“What we have found is that people don't want to use public transport because it is not as convenient as a car, so if we can get people a form that is convenient but also good for the environment then they will use it.”
Their solution - a fleet of vans - called taxibuses that wouldtravel door to door and pick up other people with similar travel plans for a low price.
“Our simulation shows that waiting times will only be a few minutes. And it costs just about $2 a trip.”
The students designed the complex computer software to co-ordinate the system but to get to Paris - they first had to beat the other universities.
Campbell Live were there to catch the moment when Team Phoenix too out the New Zealand prize and knew that Paris was the next stop.
Joining Team Phoenix were the Koreans who developed a way to monitor a tree’s pain to see what it needs.
The Irish developed a vegetable oil car with some special economy software and some overloading problems.
All of them a potential Bill Gates.
But the IT world is facing challenges - programming has lost some appeal in the developed world.
So that’s why the Imagine Cup exists - sponsored by Microsoft and UNESCO - it wants to excite students to solve the world’s problems.
Joe Wilson of Microsoft said “the Imagine Cup is a vessel, an opportunity for the minds and energy and the passion of the students, cause if anyone is going to save our world , it’s probably going to be them, cause certainly you and I didn't get it done.
But saving the world takes a back seat to winning the competition right now, unfortunately one of the kiwi presentations had a few technical hiccups along the way.
A frustrated Janina said "it has worked every single time, even in the preliminaries…but then it did something strange.”
Luckily a second presentation went flawlessly.
And so it came to crunch time, out of 61 countries, only 12 would go through to the semis.
The Kiwi team were not one of the lucky ones and their faces told the story.
Later Janina said “it’s a shame being beaten by some of the other teams…we did our best.”
Louis mused on the experience saying “it has been a real learning experience it allowed us to network with a whole lot of people.”
The students will not drop their taxibus idea – they are already planning a trial in Christchurch.
But after months of living and breathing algorithms, it was time to enjoy a more simple existence - of just being in Paris.