Imagine Cup Asia winners unveiled

Source: Microsoft. Banner, Imagine Cup.

 
Microsoft has named the winners for this year’s Imagine Cup Asia. The finals were held on 19 February 2020, with the winners being Team Hollo from Hong Kong, Team Nutone from Japan and Team Zest from Singapore in the runner-up position.

The competition is designed to inspire students to use their imagination and passion for technology to create innovative solutions that tackle some of the world’s biggest social, environmental, and health challenges. In a first for the annual competition, this year's Imagine Cup Asia Finals was held via Microsoft Teams and saw the 10 finalists from seven countries virtually present their inventions to secure a place in the World Championships in May.

Ten teams competed in the finals. Team Hollo and Team Nutone each received a cash prize of US$8,000, Azure credits and a trip to the global finals to be held at Microsoft Build 2020. Both winning teams will compete with winners from Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), for the Imagine Cup trophy along with a cash prize of US$100,000, a mentoring session with Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft Corp and a US$50,000 Azure Grant. Team Zest, along with Tulibot from Indonesia and Blume from India will receive US$2,500 each for their projects:

• Team Hollo created a mental health companion and therapist in one platform to enhance current practices by NGOs and therapists. By integrating an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that utilises clinical CBT action plans and problem identification, Hollo introduces youth to therapy and counselling practices without fear of judgement. The platform also provides online gamified journalling and mindfulness activities to supplement the therapy and counselling. Data captured through the platform can be used to generate empirical and actionable findings for NGOs and their therapists.

• Team Nutone developed NUTONE, a neck wearable electrolarynx which gives people who have lost their voices the ability to speak. NUTONE vibrates the user's throat to create the sound that matches the movement of the user’s mouth. It uses neural networks to learn lost voice characteristics and restore them.

• Team Zest developed Dr. Rehab, a mobile application that provides real-world physiotherapy supervision by medical professionals through computer vision

• Team Tulibot developed Tulibot, an integrated assistive device to bridge the communication gap for the hearing-impaired. The technology features a wearable smart glove and glasses

• Team Blume developed an Android application that allows patients to scan the RFID tag on prescription medication to ensure its authenticity and allergen-compatibility with the patient

“Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition not only challenges students to utilise technology creatively to make a difference in the world, but also provides the opportunity to connect, engage, and learn from a community of likeminded young innovators. We’re glad to see student teams from across Asia showcase their unique solutions that have the potential to create lasting impact. We hope that through this competition, students are inspired to pursue their passion to develop, ideate, and solve global problems through the power of technology,” said Jennifer Ritzinger, GM, Audience Evangelism, Microsoft.

Held annually since 2003, the Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition,. This year’s Imagine Cup encouraged participants to Dream it. Build it. Live it in order to create applications that shape how individuals live, work and play and through their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology.

The 10 finalist student teams - from Japan, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, India, mainland China and Hong Kong - were selected from various rounds of the competition online or through in-person National Final events organised by Microsoft subsidiaries in countries across the Asia region. The competition’s online judging panel included executives from Microsoft and industry leaders. They evaluated the teams on innovation, and whether each solution presented was comprehensive and marketable.