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Meet the student developers who are leveraging IoT, AI, object detection, web apps, and more to tackle healthcare and accessibility challenges. 


 


The 2021 Imagine Cup is all about innovating to help solve pressing global issues, and this year’s competition is focused on solutions in four social good categories: Earth, Education, Healthcare, and Lifestyle. All tech ideas submitted to the competition were developed under one category that best aligned with a team’s passion and motivation to make a difference. In this feature, we’ll look at innovations for Healthcare. 


 


Healthcare overview 


Our Healthcare category focuses on transforming and reimagining healthcare with technology. This includes enabling personalized care, empowering care teams, and improving operational outcomes. Accessibility and inclusion are also a large emphasis, focused on building products to enrich the lives of people with disabilities, and designing and building inclusive technology that reflects the diversity of everyone. Microsoft has a commitment to applying AI and the cloud to solving healthcare challenges. In addition, all Imagine Cup projects are judged on diversity and accessibility criteria to assess whether teams are innovating inclusively from the start and have adequately addressed needs of all users. Projects in this category align with this work 


 


Why it matters 


We all experience health in our everyday lives. Health challenges faced by millions include access to necessary care, diagnoses, and treatments, and resources for caregivers who support their loved ones. Creating a world that’s more accessible and inclusive for individuals with disabilities is also a core focus of this field, with the goal of empowering everyone to have access to the resources they need. Healthcare category projects focus on helping individuals live their fullest lives through novel health and accessibility tech innovations, and working to create better health outcomes for all. 


 


Meet our Healthcare category World Finalists: 


 






























































Team Atheia, United States


Project: Atheia


 


Atheia is an inexpensive, all-in-one bracelet paired with an app that assists people with visual impairments navigate their surroundings. The project uses real-time object detection and search to ensure the safety and independence of visually impaired persons.


Atheia.png

Team Cepha, United States


Project: Cepha


 


Team Cepha created an early detection platform for Parkinson’s disease utilizing smartphone sensor data.


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Team Flourish, Canada


Project: flourish


 


flourish is an adaptive gesture control device, powered by TinyML, to democratize digital accessibility for the cerebral palsy community.


Flourish Logo.png

Team Breathe Mongolia, Mongolia


Project: Sky Watcher


 


Sky Watcher is a collaborative platform that uses affordable embedded IoT devices to calculate air qualities around Mongolia. The projects aims to allow citizen-led actions and collaboration between organizations to solve air quality issues.


Breathe Mongolia Logo.jpg

Team JBAwesome, Singapore


Project: Phychant — Development of Physical Disability and Speech Difficulties Assistant


 


The team created a mobile app to help individuals with physical disabilities and speech difficulties to effectively communicate with anyone. The app can automatically detect objects in a user’s surrounding environment to generate the possible responses, and the user can select one to play via Text to Speech. 


JBAwesome.jpg

Team K-CPR, Korea


Project: K-CPR


 


K-CPR is a smartwatch and mobile application that provides guidance and real-time feedback so that anyone can perform accurate CPR during cardiac arrest. Users can receive feedback on the speed and depth of CPR through voice and screen colors.


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Team REWEBA, Kenya


Project: REWEBA (Remote Well Baby)


 


The team’s solution is an early warning system that digitally monitors growth parameters of babies and sends data to doctors remotely for timely intervention. It combines a variety of technologies to provide innovative functionalities for infant screening.


REWEBA.jpg

Team Ubo, Tunisia


Project: Ubo


 


Ubo is an intelligent game console that offers educational activities to children with autism spectrum disorders to help them maintain their treatment from home.


Ubo Logo.png

Team AI Based Ophthalmology Grading, Pakistan


Project: AI Based Ophthalmology Grading


 


The team developed a 360° AI-based Ophthalmology Grading and Analysis tool that will automate the long doctor-patient cycle in Ophthalmology. It uses advanced Deep Learning techniques to diagnose disorders from retinal images.


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Team Neural Bionics, United States


Project: Neural Bionics


 


Current upper limb prostheses are exorbitantly expensive, and often lack effective and intuitive control systems. As a result, while prosthesis use can significantly increase quality of life, disuse rates among upper limb amputees remain high. To combat this, the team developed a 3D-printed brainwave and gesture-controlled bionic arm with at a much lower cost than current prosthetics.


Neural Bionics.PNG

Team Cloud Access, Indonesia


Project: CardiWatch


 


CardiWatch is a mobile and low-cost solution for Cardiovascular Disease early detection using PPG signal screening. CardiWatch includes a focus on preventative care through healthy daily routines and an expert consultation platform.


CardiWatch Logo (1).png

Team Guardian, United States


Project: Guardian: A Novel Deep-Learning Based Fall Detection and Monitoring System for Senior Citizens


 


Guardian is a vision-based fall detection system that monitors live video feeds and reports dangerous falls. Guardian consists of multiple cameras and an edge computer for running an AI model that predicts falls with 96% accuracy.


Team Guardian Logo.png

Team Intelli-Sense, India


Project: Vision – the Blind Assist


 


The solution seeks to aid difficulties faced by blind individuals in understanding their surroundings in situations such as walking through a road or reading a book. The solution’s main goal is to provide a sense of vision to the visually impaired.


Intelli-Sense.PNG

Team Sentirech, Mexico


Project: Sentirech


 


Through aural rehabilitation exercises, progress statistics, direct contact with therapists, and support for hearing aid maintenance, Sentirech is a web app aimed at improving cognitive processes amongst adults with hearing loss who use hearing aids.


Sentirech Logo.png

 


We’re so inspired by these students’ passion to make a difference and are excited to see them pitch their projects at the World Finals this month. Four winning teams will be selected from each of the competition categories, taking home USD10,000 and Azure credits. These teams will also move forward to the World Championship for the chance to win USD75,000 and mentorship with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. Two runner-up teams in each category will take home USD2,500 plus Azure credits.


 


Follow the action 


Follow these teams’ journey on Instagram and Twitter as they head to the World Finals to compete.  

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.