Microsoft is announcing the winners of the 2022 Imagine Cup Junior artificial intelligence (AI) for Good Challenge. The competition is an extension of the Microsoft Imagine Cup world championship. Targeting junior and secondary school students aged 13 to 18. It encourages educators to embrace new technologies like AI and machine learning and then provide these experiences to their students. It also seeks to help students develop skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
Students learn the fundamentals of AI and Machine Learning as well as the application of AI in real life. They also learn Deep Learning, Neural networks and AI for Good.
Out of thousands of participants from across the globe, ten teams are global winners. Submitting creative ideas that look to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges using the power of AI. Out of thousands of participants from across the globe, ten teams are global winners. Submitting creative ideas that look to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges using the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
“At Microsoft, we’re always impressed by the creativity in the solutions submitted by the future generation of students. Every student who took part brought their heart to their projects, which really came through to all of the judges.”
Rick Herrmann, Vice President Worldwide Public Sector Education
Here are the top 10 global winners and their creative concepts.
2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge winners
ARISE, Nepal. ARISE is an AI-driven interactive application promoting accessibility for chemistry laboratory equipment using motion and augmented reality.
AutoCrab, Hong Kong. AutoCrab is an AI sensor to monitor and regulate water quality in hairy crab aquafarms.
Clean Up Crew, Australia. Clean Up Crew is an all-in-one AI device that collects and sorts waste materials into appropriate categories for proper recycling.
Earthatarian, United Kingdom. Earthatarian is an AI-powered application to reduce food waste by predicting the ‘actual expiry’ of stocked food items and monitoring food consumption.
HACKRR, Philippines. WTFact is a fact-checking browser extension that utilizes AI to detect fake news and make internet users aware of online mis- and dis-information.
NeuSparks, China. NeuSparks uses Azure AI and Machine Learning to transcribe folk music recordings into digital format (MIDI) that can be easily transmitted and assist in sheet music creation and re-composition.
Sea Waste Scavengers, Indonesia. This AI concept is a ship fully powered by electricity from hydro and solar energy that tracks, locates, and captures plastic garbage and delivers it to a recycling plant.
SkyLine Humanitarian, Vietnam. This AI-integrated mobile application connects hospitals and blood donors by blood type while encouraging potential new blood donors by spreading awareness.
Team Sensory Metaverse, India. Sensory Metaverse is a VR concept with a headset and a body suit that helps users not only see but feel virtual reality.
VORA, United States. VORA is a visual object recognition aid for the visually impaired.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
Sandra Makena and Amanda Flavia, undergraduate students of Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Nyeri, Kenya, have emerged Earth Category winners of the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regional competition. They are awarded USD2500 cash and USD2500 in Microsoft Azure credits in prizes.
Sandra and Amanda, engineering and computer science students respectively, teamed up to take part in the Microsoft student technology competition. Qualifying as part of 48 teams to the World Finals stage out of thousands of teams from 160 countries. The 48 teams consisted of four other student teams from Kenya, Cameroon and South Africa representing Africa. Five teams from the Middle East and six from Europe, thus 16 finalists from the EMEA region. With Sandra Makena and Amanda Flavia winning in one of the four categories for the EMEA region.
The students with the Team name ‘Sayari’ the Swahili word for planet, conceptualized the ‘Ideal Monitoring System’ to reduce post-harvest losses and maximize yields for farmers. The system, they say, will help farm managers monitor and maintain ideal conditions for maximum yields. As well as the safe storage of agricultural produce in storage and agricultural cold rooms.
Even though Sandra and Amanda emerged as Microsoft Imagine Cup EMEA category winners they did not get the top-scoring points in the region to progress to the next stage. This year only the top-scoring team in each region gets to advance to the 2022 World Championship, which takes place during Microsoft Build in May. V Bionic, a student team from Saudi Arabia, getting the top-scoring points qualifies to represent the EMEA region. They will face off with Melodic, USA and Nana Shilpa, Sri Lanka, Americas and Asia regional winners respectively. For the chance to win the grand prize of USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.
The competition known by others as the Olympics of Technology marks its 20th anniversary this year.
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.
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.
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.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
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.
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.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
