Oasys Team: (top, from right to left) Hani AbuHuwaij, Monir Abu Hilal; (bottom) Yousef Wadi, Mohammad Azzam

Project OaSys, from Amman, Jordan, won third place in the software design competition at the Worldwide Finals of Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition in New York yesterday. Oasys, the only team from the Arab World to compete in the Worldwide Finals, succeeded with their parsimonious design for a four-point interface system that would allow quadriplegics to control a computer with a mouse, type, and operate a Wii-mote.

The pioneering team placed only behind Ireland in first and a US team in second, and consisted of Yousef Wadi and Hani AbuHuwaij from the German Jordanian University, Monir Abu Hilal from the Princess Sumaya University of Technology, and Mohammad Azzam of Petra University, along with their advisor Mohammad Saleh. Throughout the competition, the team received ample support on their Facebook page, and even a boost on twitter from Queen Rania.