This year we’ve been hard at work engaging with student developers all over the world. Our goal is to inspire the next generation of developers to create unique experiences for Windows Phone.

A little bit ago I blogged about a promotion called Big App on Campus targeting US student developers:

• The idea: students create great apps
• The reward: the developers of the top 10 apps all get flown to SXSW in Austin for a once-in-a-lifetime experience: passes to the music festival, a special concert with The Gracious Few and Candlebox, a VIP dinner with the bands, and an interview on national radio about their apps and experience
• The big payoff: the top overall paid and free app will each win $15k!

The past week was spent judging all the submitted apps and the top 20 semi-finalists (10 paid apps, 10 free apps) have been chosen. Now it’s up to public voting to determine who will get to go to SXSW and who will return home $15k richer with the title “Big App on Campus”.

Please take 10 minutes to check out the student apps on the dedicated Facebook page. Download any apps that catch your eye and/or “Like” them on Facebook. We will be using the downloads and “Likes” to determine the finalists and overall winners.

http://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftTechStudent?sk=app_136366186486038

Forward to your friends and have them vote too! Thanks @BenLower for spearheading the voting initiative