Tech Trends @ Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017

Alice — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 08:17:56 +0000

After a fantastic #MSBuild2017 Tech Trends is heading back to Seattle for the Imagine Cup

Now in its 15^th year, the Microsoft Imagine Cup brings together some of the world’s smartest students to create solutions with the potential for global impact. 54 teams from all around the world will come together at Microsoft’s Redmond HQ to compete now only for a $100,000 prize, but also a $120,000 Azure grant and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup finals will take place on July 27th
Share on X

The finals will take place on July 27^th and we’ll be covering the stories and projects in more detail then, but in the meantime, meet the teams below!

Team Name	Country & University	Project Name & Description
Nash	Argentina Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires	Nash’s platform RESCUE was developed to reduce the response times in natural disasters. Deploying a network of economic and self-flying drones, the city is explored and analyzed in real time.
SourceLink	Australia University of Melbourne	SourceLink reconnects individuals with the producers of their food, helping them to engage with the people and the stories behind their purchases.
Team Parasitica	Bangladesh Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology	Team Parasitica’s “fasTnosis” is a medical solution that analyzes a patient’s sputum, blood and stool samples for screening of Tuberculosis, Malaria and Intestinal Infections.
Scrawlless	Belarus Belarusian State University	Scrawlless is a platform that helps kids with cerebral palsy and other problems associated with fine motor skills do their school tasks. Team Scrawlless has also engineered a special virtual keyboard and interactive modules for non-linear counting.
Knowlead	Bosnia and Herzegovina International Burch University	Knowlead is social network learning platform where students are able to acquire and share knowledge. Approach is through peer-to-peer live communication where everyone is a student and teacher.
UpFish	Brazil Universidade Estadual de Campinas	UpFish is an intelligent solution that monitors production of fish in aquaculture systems. Use technology to help produce the most fish as possible in a fish farm.
Bubu Digital	Brazil Federal University of Paraíba	Bubu Digital has invented a smart pacifier that monitors a baby’s health through temperature and humidity sensors in order to help fight infant mortality.
NeuroGate	Canada University of Waterloo	Using Microsoft’s Kinect motion data and machine learning, NeuroGate’s software analyzes gait patterns and diagnose various neurodegenerative diseases.
Karate Manatees	Canada University of Toronto	Team Karate Manatees has developed an online multiplayer team based sports game.
Surgical Assistant	China Xidian University	Surgical Assistant’s software aims to improve issues associated with the practical problems of complex clinical surgery. Surgical Assistant provides a medical image processing platform and VR applications to view 3D models.
X.GLU	Czech Republic Czech Technical University in Prague	The X.GLU project strives to provide novel hardware and software instruments to allow diabetic patients to cope with the disease better.
OverSkill	France Ecole Polytechnique	Research has proven physical exercise stimulates intellectual development yet we have noticed there are currently few ways to develop both brainpower and body fitness at the same time. OverSkill targets seven core abilities and is designed to train the mind and the body simultaneously through the use of mixed reality.
SmartCase	Germany Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	SmartCase is an innovative combination consisting of a multi platform application and a hardware component attachable to luggage of all sorts which helps travellers to monitor their belongings and avoid thefts through signal lights.

Team Name	Country & University	Project Name & Description
koicode	Germany Technical University of Munich	Team koicode focuses on creative code visualization to improve readability and transparency for computer science students.
OsteoMentor	Greece Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	OsteoMentor is a project that aims to support people with osteoporosis in order to maintain and improve their life quality, providing a complete solution that utilizes state-of-the-art technologies.
Sense+	Hong Kong Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Sense+ is a cognitive application that enables the visually impaired to see, explore, notice and search with their ears.
GlovEye	Hungary Budapest University of Technology	GlovEye has engineered tactile feedback gloves for smart devices that the blind and partially sighted people perceive printed text as Braille.
3alchemists	India Medicaps Indore	3alchemists’ application assists and diagnose the patients of Alzheimer and other degenerative diseases and reduce the medical expenses and man-hours.
PocketConfident AI	India IIT Hyderabad	PocketConfidant AI is developing the first virtual coach powered by Artificial Intelligence.
Negative Time	India BITS Pilani	Negative Time’s “Content Holmes” is a one-click AI-based online parenting solution that help you keep your children secure from cyber-bullying and adult content online and monitor their activities.
CIMOL	Indonesia Bandung Institute of Technology	CIMOL’s web based app “Hoax Analyzer” aims to combat the proliferation of “fake news”. Leveraging NLP and ML, the app is capable of identifying if certain contextual information can be categorized as hoaxes or not.
NeuroVoice	Japan University of Tokyo	NeuroVoice converts an input voice into another person’s voice.

Team Name	Country & University	Project Name & Description
TITAMAS	Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology	TITAMAS has created a smart white cane device for visually impaired.
DocStroke	Jordan Jubilee Institute	DocStroke aims to provide the cheap technique to determine the risks of stroke using ocular image processing and machine learning that any rural medical institution could afford, so they could warn the stroke and prevent it from happening with all of its side effects, including deaths caused by the stroke.
En#l-Guard	Korea Sejong University	En#I-Guard’s windows application “Blinker” is designed to prevent and alleviate Computer Vision Syndrome(CVS). People who use computers for long time are likely to be exposed to CVS such as eye fatigue, blurred vision, dry eye and vision loss.
Bl!nk	Lebanon American University of Beirut	Bl!nk’s project consists of a solution that gives feedback to the user on a rehearsal of a presentation or speech he or she is preparing.
Eranoi	Mexico Universidad Insurgentes, Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz, Instituto Tecnológico de Culiacán	To help prevent the issues from contaminated water, Eranoi has created ¨Bluedrop¨, a device that monitors the quality of the water using a set of sensors that allows to measure the conductivity, the ORP, temperature, purity level, the water pH, among other important parameters.
e-park	Morocco Institut Supérieur de Génie Appliqué	With e-park, a web and mobile solution – you would be able to see the parking space in real time, know which ones are taken, and which ones are free and head straight there, not only that but you’d also be able to reserve the empty parking space ahead of your arrival, other features include keeping track of your car in the parking lot, and in app parking service payment.
Echo Innovators	Nepal Kantipur Engineering College	Echo Innovators has engineered a wearable device for livestock that monitors health of aninmals and uploads to Azure for analysis and advice to owners.
GroupCram	New Zealand University of Auckland	A web-app that drives critical thinking in students by providing them a platform for collaborative study.
Beta Team	Oman German University of Technology – Oman	Beta Team’s ”Bee” is a app that is connected with beacons technology for retailers, with the aim to understand the context of the world around the app users. Bee’s goal is to enhance customer experience and empower retailers.
Opticode	Philippines Lyceum of the Philippines University-Laguna	Opticode’s Minerva, a virtual assistant mobile application for the visually impaired that taps on the power of the smartphone camera to identify objects in the real world. The user simply points the camera at a box of cereal, for instance, and the assistant will describe it aloud through the phone’s speakers.
Idea hunters	Poland Military University of Technology	Idea_hunters’ Elephant brings the world of IoT to the nursery. The team designed clothing to monitor a baby’s vital functions, like temperature, muscle and respiratory activity, and heart functions.
TaleShip	Puerto Rico Thomas Alva Edison School	Taleship is a platform built with one goal: making writing fun for all. In the app, users have the ability to get together in a room and write a story in real-time, taking turns like a game, each turn contributing a part to the story.
WaCoMo	Qatar Qatar University	WaCoMo provides a complete platform for interactive visualisation of water consumption happening at different outlets on any given property or land. This software will in turn encourage efficient water usage.

Team Name	Country & University	Project Name & Description
deTpression	Romania University of Bucharest	deTpression is a device that can not only detect the depression, but also monitor it. It allows the doctor to monitor how the disease evolves for his patients. The patient simply put the device in his room corner, and it will start monitoring and send the results on cloud, where the doctor will access them.
Boremeter	Russia Higher School of Education	Boremeter can determine which parts of the lecture were boring from the video-stream of the audience. It uses it’s own neural network to detect whether a person is listening or not, and can handle videos with quite large number of faces.
UTV	Russia Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology	UTV uses language processing and term extraction to index a stream of scientific papers (which is generated by Microsoft Research online service), and present graphical representation of scientific trends, graphs of co-authors, and topic map.
Evermind	Russia Moscow State University	Evermind’s application can help prevent drunk drivers from operating their vehicles. It uses Face API to extract face landmark features, and then machine learning algorithms on top of it to determine the state of a person via a series of tests (eye movements, reaction time, color perception).
Heart Sound	Singapore Nanyang Polytechnic	Heart Sound’s hardware and application captures continuous monitoring of ECG and heart sound signals.
TeamTitans	Sri Lanka University of Moratuwa	TeamTitans invented a wearable device that helps people with asthma and gamifies the process by assisitng them with breathing control.
Med x Up	Taiwan Taiwan National Tsing Hua University	Med x Up’s technology can detect chronic renal failure (CRF) in its earliest stages by using a Smart Urine Bag solution that monitors patients’ urine volume and velocity.
Welse	Thailand King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi	Welse’s device processes bloodwork and uses a smartphone application to send results.
Green Jam	United Arab Emirates American University in Dubai	Green Jam’s project aims to turn recycling into a habit rather than a mandated task for citizens of the future. The project implements a reward system for recycling within the context of an automated recycling station, where each item thrown by the user is automatically processed and dropped into its designated recycling bin.
SEAT	United Kingdom University College, London	SEAT’s Scaffolding Exercise Assignment Tool (SEAT) tool aims to improve the learning and teaching experience in programming courses.
Donaco	United Kingdom Imperial College London	Donaco aims to revolutionise the donation industry by facilitating the relationship between charities and donors.
KSF.LLC	United Kingdom Oxford University	KSF.LLC has developed the world’s first remote and interactive farming platform for urban consumers.
Pocket Sized Hands	United Kingdom Abertay University	Developer team Pocket Sized Hands created Honeypot Espionage. An online VR multiplayer shooter focused on stealth combat. Acting as a spy, you are completely invisible when stood still, but you will begin to materialize if you move, fire a weapon or set a trap.

Team Name	Country & University	Project Name & Description
Farmalytics	United States Stanford University University of California San Diego	Farmalytics uses field sensors that measure important parameters that are vital for crop growth.
Oculogx	United States Georgia Institute of Technology	Oculogx has created a mixed reality app that uses Microsoft HoloLens and Azure to improve order picking in warehouses.
PulsePal	United States Princeton University	PulsePal is a low-cost mobile tool that uses an algorithm and video camera to digitally monitor heartrate.
Brazilian Student Association @ Stanford	United States Stanford University	The Brazilian Students Association at Stanford has developed the Cheque which app allows Brazilians to access political info and provide feedback to their representatives.
Orai	United States Drexel University	The Orai app helps people improve their speech content and delivery through instantaneous, on-demand, and personalized feedback.
Fluency	United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Fluency is an immersive language-learning web app that connects users with native speakers.

I wish all the teams traveling to Seattle the best of luck. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us!

You won’t want to miss any of the action, so be sure to tune into the Imagine Cup Championship via a special webcast at 9 a.m. PT on July 27 on Microsoft Imagine.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Tech Trends @ Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 appeared first on Tech Trends.

NESTA and IBM Run £10K Prize for Young Tech Pioneers

Alice — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:29:08 +0000

Students from secondary schools across the UK are being invited to compete for a £10,000 award for creative tech pioneers.

Inspired by the original 18th century Longitude Prize – which set the task of determining a ship’s exact location at sea – the prize challenges young people to solve healthcare challenges through the Internet of Things (IoT).

Run by innovation foundation Nesta and supported by IBM, the competition will see teams competing to find the most innovative web-enabled technology solution to improve the health and wellbeing of people in the UK.

UK students can compete for a £10k Creative Tech Award sponsored by IBM and Nesta
Share on X

In addition to the cash prize of £10,000 and two runner-up £1000 prizes, all finalists will be invited to visit IBM’s London offices, where they will work on their ideas with guidance from the company’s Internet of Things specialists. Teams will also be trained in the use of cutting edge cognitive computing and machine learning tools.

“We believe that understanding, engaging with and applying the latest technologies is essential learning for every young person, and this is exactly what the Longitude Explorer Challenge Prize does. This year’s prize focuses on a rapidly developing area of technology, which IBM is at the forefront of: the Internet of Things, says Mark Wakefield, Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs Manager at IBM UK.

Students must be aged between 11 and 16, and each team must be supported by a teacher or youth leader. Teams will be responsible for building the technology as well as all aspects of design, budgeting and marketing, helping to hone their full entrepreneurial skill-set.

“We’re thrilled to be working with IBM – the pioneers of Watson – on the second Longitude Explorer Prize,” says Tris Dyson, Director of the Challenge Prize Centre at Nesta. “Projects like this are hugely important, not only in creating opportunities to help develop young people’s STEM skills but also their abilities in presentation, teamwork and project planning. Building on last year’s successes, we are calling for even more young people to get involved this time around.”

The first Longitude Explorer Prize, launched in 2014, focused on geolocation and attracted over 60 entries. The competition was won by an all-girl team from Rendcomb College in Gloucestershire who took home the first prize for their app, Displaced, designed to help charities to coordinate the logistics of supporting vulnerable people around the world.

The Longitude Explorer Challenge wants students to use IoT to tackle public health problems
Share on X

Speaking about the experience, their Director of Computing Jonathan Torbitt said: “It was a great privilege to mentor our school’s team through the Longitude Explorer Prize 2015, from the initial inception of the pupils’ idea to delivery of a working prototype. The transformation in the girls along the way was fantastic. They went from shy and nervous teenagers to confident young adults, capable of presenting their idea in a professional manner.“

For more information on the judging criteria and to submit an idea, visit the Longitude Explorer Prize website. Entries close on the 3^rd March (3pm GMT) and winners will be announced before the end of school summer term 2017

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post NESTA and IBM Run £10K Prize for Young Tech Pioneers appeared first on Tech Trends.

Technology Prize Archives - Tech Trends

Tech Trends @ Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017

NESTA and IBM Run £10K Prize for Young Tech Pioneers