- Microsoft India concluded the 16th edition of Imagine Cup and announced RealVol, DrugSafe, and Practikality as winners of the India Chapter. These student teams will represent India at the Imagine Cup finals in U.S.A. and compete for $100,000 prize money and a mentoring session with Satya Nadella. The premier competition allows student developers to use their creativity and passion to solve real world problems and turn their ideas into reality. This year’s India leg also underscored the rising interest for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies like Cognitive Services and Chatbots among Indian students. 60 percent of the entries received from the participants were solutions powered by AI.
| Imagine Cup 2018 – India Winners
Grand Winner: RealVol (IIIT Delhi) RealVol features a virtual reality based immersive view inside a CT or MRI scan, where a user can navigate the 3D scan of a human body. First runner-up: DrugSafe (RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru) DrugSafe was ideated to mitigate counterfeit medicine growth in the market. Using multi-layered checks in the DrugSafe app, a consumer can verify validity of a drug. Second runner-up: Practikality (Amity International School, Gurugram) Practikality is a machine learning based assistant to help the differently abled communicate efficiently. The app serves as voice for the mute, listening tool for the deaf and vision for the blind. Winners in special categories · Best project on Diversity: Mobile Assistive Kit for visually impaired · Best project on Accessibility: Practikality |
Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India said, “Imagine Cup is a true reflection of how the youth with their entrepreneurial capabilities are taking a lead in building solutions for real life challenges. Microsoft is helping them with right tools and skill sets to be able to pursue their passion of becoming successful entrepreneurs. I am truly inspired by these young innovators and their entrepreneurial spirit. The use of Artificial Intelligence capabilities in some of these solutions is remarkable and I look forward to seeing them implemented in real life scenarios soon.”
This year’s Imagine Cup also witnessed an increased participation from girl students, elevating the diversity ratio of the contest to 64 percent. There was also a 29 percent increase in accessibility related projects. With an outreach to key 50+ campuses from 10+ states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, etc Imagine Camps have impacted 10,000+ students across India.
Some of the other projects with AI capabilities entered for the Imagine Cup are as follows:
- Imagine Better: The project initiated by the students of GIMT- Guwahati; Techno India- Kolkata and JSSATE- Noida uses extensive Machine Learning to help users in identifying Fake News.
- Inspirata: Developed by the students of IIT Delhi, it is a bot that helps people fight depression by automatically identifying depressed and sad people on social media and engaging them with encouraging conversations.
- Saarthi: The real time translation technology by the students of Manipal Institute of Technology uses gesture recognition and machine learning to convert sign language to spoken language. Saarthi solves communication challenges for deaf and mute people.
- FunSchool is a mobile Augmented Reality application that aims at making learning a fun and interactive experience for kids. The application contains a collection of lessons that have been gamified using technologies like Mobile Augmented Reality, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
- BIVIDA: Built by the students of Manav Rachna International University, it is a Blockchain and AI powered Open Data Platform for tenders that opens up public contracting through disclosure, data, and engagement providing transparency, accountability and improved efficiency in the process of tendering and procurement.
Over the past ten years, more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in the Imagine Cup. From the APAC region nearly 380,000 students have competed in the Imagine Cup in the past five years.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 8,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research and development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local datacenters to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government agencies. In 2016, Microsoft opened one of its eight Cyber Security Engagement Centers in the country, to address security needs of both public and private sectors.
Microsoft Imagine Cup is the company’s premier technology program and competition providing opportunities for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to collaborate, develop a technology application, create a business plan and gain a keen understanding of what is needed to bring a concept to market. Imagine Cup is a year-long activity open to students across the globe. The competition begins with local, regional and online contests, followed by screening of best projects from each country and with winners from these legs participating in the global finals. More information about Imagine Cup is available at http://www.imaginecup.com.
