Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2018: Improving the World Through Innovation, Technology and Math

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I’m attending the Microsoft Imagine Cup, a global competition that empowers young computer science students to team up and use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology and quantitative skills to create applications that improve the world in which we live. This year’s event is the 16th annual event that includes 49 teams from around the world. Finalists will be vying for the chance to win up to $100K plus a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. You can watch the winner being introduced live on July 25th at 9:00 am PT!

About the Finalists

I had the opportunity to talk with the finalists, watch their demonstrations and ask questions to better understand their knowledge of the space in which they are working. You can find a complete list of the 49 finalists here. The innovative ideas reach across a wide range of industries and problem areas, including agriculture, public safety, entertainment and parenting. Below are a few of the finalists and their projects that I thought were quite impressive.

Pengram

Pengram

The Pengram team is from UC Berkeley, CA.

Pengram is an Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality platform which allows engineers located anywhere in the world to be holographically ‘teleported’ into a workspace when needed. For example, if an operator repairing a $100,000 medical device needs help to understand how to conduct the repair, he or she will be able to wire into the Pengram service, and, using a Hololens, can watch an expert perform the repairs in 3D.

smartARM

Haling from University of Ontario Institute of Technology and University of Toronto, this team includes Hamayal Choudhry and Samin Khan.

Using Microsoft Azure Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Cloud Storage, smartARM developed a robotic hand prosthetic. smartARM uses a camera embedded in its palm to recognize objects and calculate the most appropriate grip for an object. Using Machine Learning, the more the model is used the more accurate it becomes. You can find smartARM on Twitter.

ERANOI

ERANOI

ERANOI is team of three individuals from Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz, Instituto Tecnológico de Culiacán and Universidad Insurgentes., Mexico.

ERANOI created a monitoring system through a pocket-sized IoT device that measures in real-time the vital signs of patients such as: temperature, humidity, heart rate, blood oxygen and heart electrical activity. RedBeat collects the data and automatically sends it to a dashboard shared with the patient’s doctor, all powered by Azure Cloud. More than just a monitoring system, Redbeat is a smart control system that can help prevent diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

Fe Amaan

Fe Amaan

Fe Amaan consists of three people from Pakistan; Iqra Irfan, Areeba Kamil and Sami Ullah.

Fe Amaan is a wearable belt which regularly monitors fetus health through the use of IoT sensor device which is placed on a mother’s abdomen. The device captures the fetal heart rate and movement and sends it via Bluetooth to a mobile app. The main features of this system are to provide automated analysis of fetal health on a regular basis without harming the mother or child. As the system makes remote monitoring of the fetus possible, it aims to reduce the high rate of intrauterine deaths and stillbirths in Pakistan.

Loro

Loro

The core Loro team consists of five graduate students and one undergraduate student, each of whom has a niche expertise in such areas as mechanical engineering, business, engineering management, product design, biomedical engineering, and web design. They are affiliates of MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, and and Boston University.

Loro is a platform for providing a smart companion robot for wheelchair users. Loro integrates several technologies including: a universally mountable 360 camera, a laser pointer, a flashlight, an alarm system, and a user-friendly interface. Loro is designed to provide the users with intelligent navigation, health monitoring, social interaction and smart home connectivity.

Imagine Cup Awards in AI, Big Data and Mixed Reality

Additionally, three special prizes (Imagine Cup Awards) will be awarded in the following areas: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Mixed Reality. The 49 finalists can enter to compete for one of three Imagine Cup Awards, each valued at $15,000. Below are the finalists for each category:

AI: BeeConnex, Fe Amaan, InterviewBot, SochWare, Team Prometheus and smartARM

Big Data: Boomerang, Drugsafe, PINE., Soul Sailor, Team Sentinel and Wavy

Mixed Reality: Black Light, innobie, Pengram, RealVol and Zelixa

The recipients of these three awards will be announced tomorrow at 11:25 am (I’ll update you with another blog post then).