Microsoft : Meet the 2022 Imagine Cup Epic Challenge winners

The 2022 Imagine Cup is all about global student innovators building together to make a difference with technology and developing their own skills along the way. For the first time ever, teams had the option of submitting their project to the Epic Challenge as an early step in their competition journey.

The Epic Challenge was an opportunity for teams to receive preliminary feedback on their ideas from professional judges and have the chance to win a spot to directly advance to the World Finals round.

To enter the challenge, teams submitted a 3-minute project pitch and proposal for an original technology solution developed in one of the 2022 Imagine Cup's competition categories: earth, education, health, or lifestyle. Each Epic Challenge submission was judged, and a winner from each region was selected. These teams will each take home USD1,000 to continue developing their projects, receive judge feedback, and automatically advance to the Imagine Cup World Finals in May 2022!

Meet the winners

KAPI, United States

Category: Education

Project description: Our project is a Keyboardless, ASL-inspired Programming Interface (KAPI), which leverages emerging low-code platforms (PyCaret, Github Co-Pilot) computer vision, and Machine Learning, so that people can sign their code using only a webcam.

HireUsPls, Singapore

Category: Education

Project description: KodeFlo is a web-based game application that uses Flow-Based Programming to teach programming concepts to children aged 10-14 years old.

Roz Development Team, Pakistan

Category: Health

Project description: A mobile application to assist in early detection of breast cancer.

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In addition, 4 runner-up teams were selected from each region. These teams will receive feedback from judges for the chance to improve their projects and pitches ahead of their next round of the competition, the Online Semifinals. Competitors, check your account page for the submission deadline in your region.

Americas runner-up teams:

VueForAll, Canada, Lifestyle Project description: VueForAll's mission is to improve visual accessibility in the video game industry by optimizing game settings based on individual user needs.

Rurusi, Mexico, Earth Project description: Rurusi is a SaaS based on a mobile application and an SMS chatbot with the objective to guide farmers during the planting, storage, and sale process with AI.

Waveform, United States, Health Project description: SoundScape is the first assistive listening device to separate, localize, and classify multiple sound sources simultaneously.

Apoio, United States, Health Project description: Apoio is a clinical decision support (CDS) tool to accelerate mental health intakes by aggregating and visualizing self-reported intake forms on an intuitive dashboard.

Asia runner-up teams:

6E Resources, India, Earth Project description: The team's innovation constitutes a fully automated sewage treatment package plant which uses an IoT microprocessor with integration of water quality sensors for quality control as well as feedback control mechanism.

Spring_1.0, India, Lifestyle Project description: The team created a social platform for the elderly, amalgamating medical professionals, game developers, vendors, and end users with a highly interactive and accessible platform.

IoTian, Malaysia, Earth Project description: A Smart Aquaponics Systems that will utilize IoT technologies combined with Azure Cloud technologies to reduce labor in Aquaponics.

MakeaBLE, Taiwan, Education Project description: An AI-enabled IoT sensor gadget that helps students create prototypes of their AI-IoT ideas.

EMEA runner-up teams:

Alshaymaa School, Palestinian Authority, Health Project description: Be Happy is smart application where the product to be purchased is filmed through the camera in the application, then gives a signal if the product contains gluten.

Omega GIKI, Pakistan, Health Project description: Mind Braille is a product that will empower disabled individuals to navigate routine smartphone activities and enjoy entertainment services.

V Bionic, Saudi Arabia, Health Project description: V Bionic helps paralyzed patients recover 30% faster using an exoskeleton to offer interactive & responsive therapy utilizing an app which facilitates communication between doctor & patient for remote therapy.

Green Vault, United Kingdom, Earth Project description: Green Vault aims to assist consumers to inquire about the carbon emissions of products, which may arouse their environmental awareness and help make more informed choices.

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Congratulations to all these talented teams for their innovations! We can't wait to see how the rest of your competition journey unfolds.

If you'd like to sign up to compete in the 20thanniversary of Imagine Cup, it's not too late! Register todayand take advantage of training resources to start innovating for the future.