If you run a search for Polish companies, the first result that Bing returns is from Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia provides a list of major Polish corporations, categorized by industry. Of the 32 companies listed, only four are in the IT business. But Poland is considered Europe’s most technologically­-advanced nation. So how did the country earn this title?

Dariusz Piotrowski, development director at Microsoft Poland, told CNN that students have played a major role in driving IT innovation. Last week, the Imagine Cup worldwide finals began in Warsaw. Judging by the project that Poland’s software design team is working on, it seems Piotrowski is right.

“InterPeter is able to recognize special sign language used by a deaf person without any special markers and in the same time can translate natural language to sign language,” the team told Microsoft. Their system basically enables the hearing impaired to communicate with people who don’t know sign language (and vice versa).

What sort of track record does Poland have at Imagine Cup?

“They stood on the podium 13 times, taking the first prize five times, second five times, and third three times,” Piotrowski told the news source. It’ll be interesting to see how Team Poland’s project fares against those of their worthy opponents.

Think Poland is Europe’s most tech-savvy nation thanks to its students? Disagree? Share your opinion by leaving a comment below.

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