Microsoft announces winners of the Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge 2021

Microsoft announces winners of the Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge 2021

Imagine Cup Junior AI Microsoft

Ten teams from across the globe are winners of the first Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge. The competition is an extension of the Microsoft Imagine Cup and targets secondary school students. Thousands of students, aged 13 through 18, participated in this year’s competition to come up with ideas to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges using the power of artificial intelligence (AI).

What I love most about Imagine Cup Junior is seeing educators embrace new technologies like AI and machine learning and then provide these experiences to their students, says Anthony Salcito, VP, of Education. Not only do students get the opportunity to learn about Microsoft’s AI for Good initiatives. But they also further develop and practise 21st-century skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, he adds.

Despite the uncertainty during a global pandemic and adjusting to remote and hybrid learning, students found creative ways to bring their teams together, innovate, and learn about AI along the way. From hardships experienced by friends or family to issues, they have read about in the news, or their determination to preserve the earth and create a better world for future generations. The standard of the student submissions was truly awe-inspiring. Every student who took part brought their heart to their projects, which really came through to all the judges.

Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge winners

The top 10 global winners recognized this year and their concepts are:

Imagine Cup Junior AI
  • “Here to Hear” from Western Canada High School in Canada: A language-learning tool that supports children with hearing impairments, helping to support inclusiveness in education for the DHH community.
  • “Sense and Save” from Daffodils Foundation for Learning in India: An AI-powered, bio-resistive graphene sensor for real-time amniotic fluid monitoring in pregnant women, supporting those who do not have regular or easy access to healthcare.
  • “Gaia Eye 80 degrees” from Beijing No. 80 High School in China: A global environmental diversity and anomaly discovery sharing platform, empowering people to report environmental concerns and observations and get feedback powered by AI.
  • “CORRA” from St Aloysius College in Australia: The “Companion Obedient Response Robot,” designed to interact with and support children with autism in the form of a robot doll that can be with them at all times.
  • “Titans” from Maharaja Agrasen Model School in India: A scan and check app for consumers to detect counterfeit medicine packaging, to help reduce the growing issues with counterfeit medicines being sold in India.
  • “HygieneNET” from Jesuit High School in Oregon, US: A deep learning and sensor-based system for enforcing hand hygiene compliance in healthcare facilities.
  • “Imagineering” from Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore: An AI-powered app that identifies any anomalies in a baby’s faecal matter to support and guide new parents and provide early diagnoses of any diseases.
  • “Ying Wa Crazy” from Ying Wa College in Hong Kong: Designed to bring Chinese medicine to a digital platform, embracing the major principles of Chinese medicine and building those into an app to increase the speed of diagnosis.
  • “G Force” from On My Own Technology in India: A non-invasive pressure mapping method to screen skin cancer and enable earlier detection.
  • “SMSR” from Hurlstone Agriculture High School in Australia: The “Smart Mobile Sanitizing Robot” to supply and clean feminine products to support period poverty and efficient waste management.

Missed it? Watch the announcement event below.

Interested in starting a journey of learning AI? Check out these helpful resources: Microsoft Learn for StudentsMakeCodeMinecraft Hour of Code AI tutorial, and Hacking STEM. For students older than 16 who want to take their learning even further, register for the Imagine Cup Collegiate Challenge and apply to be a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador

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Meet the first student team from Africa to win the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition

Meet the first student team from Africa to win the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition

student team 2019 Imagine Cup EMEA

For the first time in the 19 year history of the Microsoft student competition, a team from Africa are the World Champions. The student team from Kenya beat three other teams to lift the prestigious trophy.

The Student Team

Kenya students Imagine Cup Microsoft

Khushi Gupta, Jeet Gohil, Dharmik Karania and Abdihamid Ali are computer science final year students of United States International University – Africa (USIS), Kenya. REWBA comes from their innovation name Remote Well Baby.

Team REWEBA entered into the competition under the healthcare category with an IoT-based early warning system for babies. Their innovation remotely monitors infant parameters during regular post-natal screening. It then sends measurements to doctors remotely, allowing for immediate interventions saving infants from fatal diseases and reducing infant mortality rates.

Find out more about their journey to winning the competition here.

Microsoft organizes the developer competition each year for students aged 16 years and above. The student innovators, use their passion and purpose to tackle local social issues with technology. Winning a cash amount to help them to keep working on their project, as well as other prizes. The competition starts from the national or online level through the regional and then World Championship event.

Africa teams at the Imagine Cup

Throughout the history of the competition, student teams from various African countries have participated at the Europe Middle East and Africa regional level. With just a handful making it to the world championship level. Unfortunately, none has gone on to win the competition.

Last year, Team Knights from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya and Team RedWalls from Tunisia National Institute of Applied Science and Technology made it to the World Finals. In 2019, team Athena-IO, Tunisia and iCropal, Kenya joined 9 others from Europe as 12 EMEA Regional Finalist. Due to changes in the competition that year second-place team Athena-IO didn’t get to present at the World Finals.

Athena-IO
Team iCropal, Kenya on the left

Team E-Park from Morocco qualified through the Middle East and Africa competition held in Lebanon in 2017. Competing as the only team from Africa against 54 teams from around the globe at the finals. In 2016 four student teams from Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia qualified to represent Africa at the Imagine Cup Finals in Seattle. During this period in the competition history, winners at the national level got direct entries to the World Championship.

The wait has been long but it is finally here. Student teams making it to the World Championship successively these past few years show how far they have come.

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Kenya students win Microsoft Imagine Cup competition, USD 125K

Kenya students win Microsoft Imagine Cup competition, USD 125K

Kenya students Microsoft Imagine Cup

Four computer science final year students of United States International University – Africa (USIS), Kenya, are the winners of the 2021 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship. The team wins the competition trophy, USD 125000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Named Team REWEBA, they become the first student team from Africa to lift the prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship trophy in its 19-year history. The student team beat three other finalist teams from New Zealand, the United States and Thailand to win the competition.

Their journey began by beating ten thousands of students entries from 163 countries to qualify for the online semifinals round. They then progressed as part of 40 teams to qualify for round one of the World Finals stage. Where two other student teams from Kenya; Cafrilearn and INTELLIVOLT qualified to compete. At the world finals stage, Team REWBA emerged winners of the healthcare category. Advancing to the World Championship which took place during Microsoft Build 2021.

The students showcased an IoT-based early warning system for babies using technologies such as Machine Learning, IoT, Analytics, etc. Their innovation, Remote Well Baby (REWEBA), remotely monitors infant parameters during regular post-natal screening. It then sends measurements to doctors remotely, allowing for immediate interventions saving infants from fatal diseases and reducing infant mortality rates.

The Kenya students; Khushi Gupta, Jeet Gohil, Dharmik Karania and Abdihamid Ali, win USD 75,000 cash, USD 50,000 Microsoft Azure grant and will get a mentoring session with Satya Nadella.

The students are planning to enhance and scale their project. They will also launch a startup in Kenya that provides better access to healthcare especially to those in marginalized areas.

Watch the World Championship below.

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Kenya student team qualifies for Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship

Kenya student team qualifies for Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship

Four computer science final year students of the United States International University – Africa (USIS) in Kenya will represent the Europe Middle East and Africa region at the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship.

The students are winners of the healthcare category and one of four teams advancing to the finals of this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. Where they get to compete with other teams from New Zealand, the United States, and Thailand for USD75,000 and mentorship with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.

Imagine Cup World Championship Microsoft kenya

We have no words, it means a lot

The Team

Meet team REWEBA, made of four members; Khushi Gupta, Jeet Gohil, Dharmik Karania, and Abdihamid Ali. REWBA comes from their innovation name Remote Well Baby.

Team REWEBA entered into the competition under the healthcare category with an IoT-based early warning system for babies. Their innovation remotely monitors infant parameters during regular post-natal screening. It then sends measurements to doctors remotely, allowing for immediate interventions saving infants from fatal diseases, and reducing infant mortality rates.

The students from Kenya say we have no words, it means a lot after working hard to get to the Imagine Cup World Championship.

Their journey includes beating tens of thousands of students from 163 countries in the online semifinal round. Then selected as part of 40 teams to qualify for round one of the World Finals stage. Where two other student teams from Kenya; Cafrilearn and INTELLIVOLT qualified to compete.

They among 11 other teams from across the world qualified to present in round two of the World Finals. Advancing to the next stage of the competition means the team wins USD10,000 and Azure credits.

Imagine Cup World Championship

The four finalists present ideas that tackle local and global issues in one of each of the competition categories; healthcare, education, earth, and lifestyle. The three other teams are Team ProTag from New Zealand, Hand-On-Labs from the USA, and Threeotech from Thailand.

The world championship is taking place before the Microsoft Build 2021 Keynotes. Team REWEBA from Kenya will get the opportunity to be the first team from Africa to win the Microsoft Imagine Cup student competition.

UPDATE:

5/25/2021: Updated to include the date of finals.

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JKUAT’s Team ‘Knights’ makes it to top six in Microsoft imagine cup, win 16,000 USD

JKUAT’s Team ‘Knights’ makes it to top six in Microsoft imagine cup, win 16,000 USD

Microsoft Imagine Cup Africa teams 2020 ignite cup emea regional winner

Two students, Michael Mwaisakenyi and Kenneth Gichira, from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) are the regional winners of the 18th annual Microsoft Imagine Cup Competition.

The annual competition saw thousands of students across the world submitting innovations to impact their communities, both locally and globally. The competition advanced through hackathons, online semi-finals, and virtual regional final events, bringing together finalists via Microsoft Teams. Six teams, including a team of bright young minds from Kenya, were selected to move forward to the World Championship and present their projects to compete for the 2020 trophy on the biggest stage yet—the Microsoft Build 2020 digital event.

EMEA champions

The winning team, The Knights from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya, created an automated robot using artificial intelligence to identify and remove weeds from rows of crops. Their solution uses cameras as sensors to gather input from the environment and eliminate farmers’ need to use environmentally harmful pesticides in their weeding. As part of winning the regional finals, the team won 8000 USD each. Prizes also included Azure credits and a spot in the Imagine Cup World Championship event.

Microsoft Imagine Cup has always aimed to empower students to use their imagination and passion for technology. To develop innovative and inclusive solutions that tackle key societal issues. This aligns directly with Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to providing students with the necessary resources and platforms to hone in on and grow their skillset. With an increasing focus on bringing the world together digitally, we’re continually encouraged by the projects young developers create to make a difference. We are also extremely proud of The Knights. Who by making it to the championship event, have reaffirmed Kenya and Africa’s immense potential to create solutions that directly address socio-economic needs within industries such as the agricultural sector,” says Kendi Nderitu, Country Manager for Microsoft in Kenya.

Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship Competition

Held in virtual format this year in light of the health safety recommendations, World Finalists pitched their projects during Microsoft Build’s inaugural digital event.

This year’s event saw innovation experts spanning a variety of technology, diversity, and social change-centred experiences that align to the core of Imagine Cup’s mission as judges. These are; tech innovator and leader Dwana Franklin-Davis, CEO of Reboot Representation. She has worked to empower underrepresented groups in technology. Young innovators and CyberCode Twins, America and Penelope Lopez. Who have participated in tech competitions across the world and hope to introduce other students to opportunities in the field. Finally, Microsoft president Brad Smith. He leads work on a wide range of issues involving the intersection of technology and society. Including ethics and AI, human rights, and environmental sustainability.

Kicking off the event with a short pitch of their projects in the lightning round, the judges selected Team Hollo from Hong Kong along with Team Syrinx from Japan and Team Tremor Vision from the United States to advance to the second and final round of the competition. Each of the top three teams then gave an in-depth presentation of their solutions. Assessed for their diversity, originality and innovative design.

Winners

Judges selected Team Hollo as the 2020 Microsoft Imagine Cup championship winners. The team, from the University of Hong Kong, won the grand prize. With a mental health companion web app leveraging Azure analytics and AI services to advance youth therapy practices. The grand prize included 100,000 USD, a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and 50,000 USD in Azure grants.

Also making it to the top-six position was Team RedWalls from Tunisia National Institute of Applied Science and Technology. With their I-Remember mobile application designed for the well-being of both the Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers.

Innovations from bright minds in Africa

“We are thrilled for Team Hollo and look forward to future updates surrounding their winning solution. At the same time, we are also encouraged by the sheer talent of all this year’s finalists. Who clearly put a lot of thought behind their unique tech innovations.  As we continue to navigate through the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in such uncertain times, I am confident we will continue to see innovations from young bright minds not only in Africa but the world over,” concludes Nderitu.

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