The shopping cart is no ordinary piece of equipment: it is wired to a motion-activated Kinect controller, part of Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system but widely adapted now for a range of other uses.

The cart, called wi-Go, represented more than six months of work by Querido and his team, who were competing in Microsoft's 10th annual Imagine Cup finals in Sydney over the weekend. University students around the world compete in categories such as software design and game design.

This year, 106 teams made it to finals, vying for US$175,000 in prize money. Microsoft provides software and other tools, such as compute cycles on servers in the company's data centers, to students for free, as well as $3 million in grant money for Imagine Cup student projects.

In the early years, projects were more theoretical, dominated by students with backgrounds in computer science, engineering and math, said Walid Abu-Hadba, a Microsoft corporate vice president.

In the later years, it has become more interdisciplinary, with students incorporating team members with experience in marketing and business, Abu-Hadba said. Students are expected to come to the competition with not only strong technology but a sound business case that would enable them to turn their projects into businesses. It also is intended for students to tackle pressing issues in areas such as health care, disabilities, education and the environment.