5 African student teams qualify for the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals

5 African student teams qualify for the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals

Five student teams from Kenya, Cameroon and South Africa are advancing to the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals. For an opportunity to win over USD50,000 in prizing and a slot in the World Championship in May. Where they can win the grand prize of USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.

In the Imagine Cup World Finals round, they will compete against 43 other finalists from across the world. The teams will pitch their ideas to judges, demo their solutions, and engage in a question and answer session. Projects will be judged on their innovative use of Azure technology, accessibility and inclusion, and its marketability as a business idea.

Imagine Cup World Finals 2022

The Africa Imagine Cup World Finalists include three student teams from Kenya, one from Cameroon and one from South Africa. They developed projects and solutions in the Education, Health and Earth competition categories. Five teams from the Middle East and Six from Europe bring this number to 16 finalists from the EMEA region.

The student innovation competition known by others as the Olympics of Technology celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It allows students to create inspiring and inclusive projects using cutting-edge technologies and develop valuable skills. Last year a student team from Kenya became the first African team to win the Microsoft student competition. A testament to the impact skilling and mentorship is having on students through programs such as the Microsoft Learn Students program.

Here are the teams, the qualifying category, the country and details about their solutions.

Imagine Cup World Finals – Africa Teams

Alpha14 – South Africa, Education category

ULearn is an online learning platform that consists of exciting and interactive activities, assessments, simple flashcards, and numerous types of rewards. Activities are fun and motivate Down Syndrome children to learn and gather valuable statistics to track progress and emotions.

Neural Voxel – Kenya, Health category

Neural Voxel enables specialists to easily and swiftly diagnose various forms of diseases in MRI and CT scans with much higher accuracy while at the same time reducing the workload and fatigue rates of specialists.

Sayari – Kenya, Earth category

In order to reduce post-harvest losses and maximize yields for farmers, the Ideal Monitoring System aims to ensure ideal conditions for the safe storage and transportation of produce in transit and in stores.

Team U-Map – Cameroon, Education category

U-Map is a mobile app that serves to provide geolocation services so students and lecturers can get directions to any location on campus using their mobile phones.

The_X_Team – Kenya, Education category

Kaizen helps mitigate issues affecting education in Africa.

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Qatar University students win 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup Qatar competition

Qatar University students win 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup Qatar competition

A Qatar University student team is the winner of the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup student qualifying competition in Qatar. The team, RE-TEAM, will represent Qatar at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle later this year. For a chance to win 100,000 USD and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

The 7th edition of the Imagine Cup national qualifying competition saw over 130 students participating virtually. Nine teams moved on to round two of the competition with six teams battling it out at the finals.

Qatar University Microsoft Imagine Cup

RE-TEAM won $5000 cash prize, with their earth-friendly solution ‘The RE-Team Software’, under the Earth category. It seeks to provide durable and efficient robots that are able to detect and sort out different kinds of garbage on a conveyor belt using Microsoft Azure Custom Vision Service. As well as to encourage the public to throw their garbage in the correct bin.

Oryx Team and Team Trojan, the first and second runners up respectively also went to Qatar University student teams. They take home $3000 and $2000 in cash prizes respectively.

Oryx Team created Qalbee, a mobile system app for the early prediction of heart disorder risk, under the Health category. Using real-time ECG signals with the help of artificial intelligence algorithms. Whilst Team Trojan created a chatbot app under the education category, Trojan Wave app, that helps students choose a major.

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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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