Microsoft announced the India winners of the 2022 edition of Imagine Cup, the company’s flagship technology challenge for students and young innovators. The India winners, BlisCare from IIHMR University, Jaipur, and Synthesize.AI from G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur, will proceed directly to the world finals of Imagine Cup.
Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s global student technology competition designed to empower students to apply cutting edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics to solve some of the world’s most critical social and sustainability problems. The 2022 India edition saw over 100 team entries from student innovators across the country, competing to solve global challenges across four categories: Earth, Education, Health, and Lifestyle.
The winning innovations focused on using AI models to make synthetic data generation accessible to medical researchers (Synthesize.AI) and creating affordable digital classroom solutions for blind students and those with low vision (BlisCare).
The finals of Imagine Cup India 2022 were judged by an eminent panel, including Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, Shraddha Sharma, Founder and CEO at YourStory Media, Trupti Mukker, CEO, Whitehat Junior and Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel.
Congratulating the winners, Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said, “Imagine Cup is more than just a platform, it’s a celebration of the vision and spirit of young innovators using tech to imagine a better future. India’s Techade will rest on harnessing the power of our youth to innovate for India. It was truly inspiring to see the passion, collaboration and differentiated thinking of the Imagine Cup participants as they built something that matters to them. I wish our winning teams luck as they prepare for the global stage and continue to innovate for impact.”
Trupti Mukker, CEO, Whitehat Junior, said, “The Imagine Cup proves how technology used creatively is the bedrock of almost all innovations today. It was wonderful to see brilliant purpose-led ideas take real shape by power of imagination and technology. Whether it is use of synthetic data for AI in medicine or innovative use of devices to make Braille books accessible to visually impaired children, the participants really pushed boundaries. “
Shraddha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory, said, “India has some of the brightest young innovators on the planet. They need platforms that give them the wings to fly and create impact. With Imagine Cup, Microsoft is providing that platform. It’s humbling to see this year’s innovators and how they are reimagining solutions for the world.”
Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel stated that “It was my pleasure to be a part of the jury of the Imagine Cup 2022 India Championship and to listen to cutting edge ideas from students from around the country who aim to build a better world. The enthusiasm was infectious!”
More than 2 million competitors from 163 countries have signed up for Microsoft’s global student technology competition to build something that matters to them, make a difference in their communities, and innovate for impact over the past 20 years. The four finalists from India, who were the winners in each category, received a Surface Go device each. The winning team of the global Imagine Cup challenge will take home USD 100,000, a Microsoft Azure grant and a mentoring opportunity with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.
For more information about Imagine Cup, please visit https://www.imaginecup.com/.
About the Winning Projects:
BlisCare-Affordable assistive technology for blind students
The Team: Chinmaya Naik, IIHMR University, Jaipur
The Project: BlisCare is an edtech initiative that aims to provide affordable digital classroom solutions for blind students and those with low vision. Through a digital Braille display system (a Braille tablet), the solution can replicate real time any text or graphical diagram to standard Braille at an affordable cost, making content accessible to students with low vision.
There are over 1 billion people with disabilities globally and due to lack of Braille literacy, few have access to quality education. Production of Braille formatted books is expensive and most often updated curriculum are not available in Braille. The aim of this project developed on Microsoft Azure was to create a solution that provides an easy, affordable and accessible way to translate content into the Braille format.
Synthesize.AI-Making synthetic data generation accessible to medical researchers
The Team: Atharva Peshkar, Rishita Mishra, Atharva Khedkar, Aniket Singh, G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur
The Project: A significant barrier to the development of AI based diagnostic medical imaging systems are the challenges in the procurement of diverse, representative, and expert-annotated medical datasets on which algorithms rely. This data paucity challenge can be addressed by synthesis of high-fidelity medical image data. Through the Synthesize.AI project, students from the G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur leveraged the power of generative models to develop a solution that can generate high fidelity medical image data which preserves patient privacy and can augment or replace the real-world data. The team’s aim was to make synthetic data generation accessible to medical researchers and institutions to help them develop more robust and truly global AI based diagnostic models. Users can simply upload their data to their website which is analyzed before generating synthetic data from it. The Synthesize.AI team is currently working with IIT Bombay’s BETiC–Biomedical Engineering and Technology Incubation Centre and the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering to further develop this solution to suit the needs of diverse industries, in addition to healthcare.
