Microsoft Announces Four Imagine Cup Grant Winners in Inaugural Year
Microsoft Announces Four Imagine Cup Grant Winners in Inaugural Year
Today, we’re announcing the four teams that have been selected as the inaugural Imagine Cup Grant winners! Starting today, these students will continue their journey of transitioning their Imagine Cup project into a startup business or nonprofit organization with support from Microsoft as well as on the ground connections they will soon make.
It’s no secret that Imagine Cup students are changing the world. Since the competition’s launch in 2003 we’ve seen student inventions make a real impact in a variety of ways, from disaster relief efforts in Haiti and Japan, to revolutionizing student participation in the classroom, to helping with stroke rehabilitation for the elderly.
Without further ado, here are your Imagine Cup Grants winners!
Team Apptenders from Croatia
Team Members: Ivan Antonic, Ivan Borko, Karmela Bresan, Dominik Tomicevic
Project Description
KiDnect is a Kinect-based solution for on-premise and remote physical therapy for children, especially those born with Cerebral Palsy. This software has the ability to monitor a child’s exercises to ensure they are being completed correctly, and then provides statistical analysis to the therapist.
What’s Next
Team Apptenders hopes to add multilingual interfaces in order to integrate additional sensors for limb rotation monitoring and advanced data analysis. The team plans to deploy the system on Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform.
Team Falcon Dev from Ecuador
Team Members: José Vicente Anilema Guadalupe, Gerardo Francisco Pérez Layedra, Henry Javier Paca Quinaluiza, Juan José Morales Ruiz
Project Description
SkillBox is an affordable solution to help children who are hearing impaired by translating all audio received from a teacher in a classroom into sign language. A wireless headset captures the sound, sends it to the computer and SkillBox then shows the corresponding sign for the word or phrase.
What’s Next
Team Falcon Dev hopes to take their first step in making SkillBox available to children by selling their technology solution to public schools in Ecuador.
Team OaSys from Jordan
Team Members: Hani AbuHuwaij, Mohammad Azzam, Monir Abu Hilal, Mohammad Saleh, Yousef Wadi
Project Description
Horizon is a software and hardware system that allows people who do not have use of their hands/arms to use a computer. Specifically, it tracks head movements and translates these movements into mouse movements. Users get full control of a computer and a cellphone, and can browse the internet, type and connect with ease and at a low cost.
What’s Next
Team OaSys hopes to improve the software stack by optimizing and adding features, pilot client lab preparations and hire sub-contractors.
Team LifeLens from the United States
Team Members: Tristan Gibeau, Cy Khormaee, Wilson To, Jason Wakizaka, Helena Xu
Project Description
Lifelens is an innovative point-of-care tool to diagnose malaria using an augmented Windows Phone application. The project addresses the unacceptably high child mortality rates caused by the lack of detection and availability of treatment of malarial diseases.
What’s Next
Team Lifelens is ready to develop their project for launch. They will use the investment for distribution of their devices, subsidizing the phones and field testing. Lifelens also plans to evolve their project by integrating Windows Azure.
The Imagine Cup Grants are a three-year, $3 million competitive grant program to help Imagine Cup participants take their ideas and their innovative solutions to market as a next step to solving the world’s toughest problems. This year, all Imagine Cup 2011 worldwide finalist teams were eligible to apply and we were blown away by the 50 teams that applied for the program. You can learn more about the Imagine Cup Grants on the Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom.
Right now, students can register to be part of Imagine Cup 2012 and can sign up in any of eight different categories. From designing brand new technology in Software Design to building gadgets through the Kinect Fun Labs Challenge, there is something for every student to enjoy. Who knows - your team could be the next group of students Microsoft funds through the Imagine Cup Grants!
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