Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 Hong Kong champion to compete with the teams from around the world in U.S. next month
Hong Kong, June 19, 2017 —The world’s largest tech competition for students, the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 has announced winners in Hong Kong, unveiling students’ innovative projects and how the company prepare students for the digital world. Sense+, student team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University won the champion and they will represent Hong Kong to visit Seattle, U.S. on 24-26 July to compete with more than 54 national teams worldwide. Taiwan AI and MatchHoliday, student teams from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology won the first runner-up and second runner-up respectively.
This year at Imagine Cup 2017, 35 project submissions were received from eight different universities and education institutions. Most of the projects have remarkably gear towards more artificial intelligence (AI) with cognitive service, data analytics and cloud-based machine learning tools as project components and to develop AI related work. Their journey started with a hackathon and demo day. Students get accelerated thru different activities and connected to Microsoft’s partners. Students used different approaches including self-taught leveraging on Microsoft’s online resources to integrate their learning journeys and products through cloud and AI. This reflects that cloud computing and AI are perceived as one of the trending subject among tertiary students and continues to gain momentum.
“We are thrilled to receive so many amazing applications this year and it was such an inspiring experience for us to work with different students in bringing great solutions for the world. Microsoft will continue its support to local educators and students to help unleash their creativity through technology.” said Joelle Woo, Director, Business Development & Developer Experience (DX), Microsoft.
Winning team tapped AI technology to help visually impaired to see
Sense+, designed by students from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, is a cognitive application built on the Microsoft’s artificial intelligence tools with cognitive service to enable the visually impaired to see, explore, get notified and search with ears. By using this application, users know every step they are taking by capturing photos of their surroundings. Taiwan AI is an intelligent traffic system that uses reinforcement learning to revolutionize the way traffic lights interact with drivers. MatchHoliday is a professional, intelligent, and human-oriented platform that gives unparalleled experience of job hunting for holiday-workers.
Sense+, student team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University won the champion and Most Innovative Award. They will represent Hong Kong to visit Seattle, U.S. on 24-26 July to compete with more than 54 national teams worldwide. Sense+ is a cognitive application built on the Microsoft’s AI tools with cognitive service to enable the visually impaired to see, explore, get notified and search with ears. (From left to right: Ma Ming Yu, Derek; Chang Shu Hao, Constan; Wang Shi Winona)
Taiwan AI, student team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology won the first runner-up. Taiwan AI is an intelligent traffic system that uses reinforcement learning to revolutionize the way traffic lights interact with drivers.
MatchHoliday, student team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology won the second runner-up. MatchHoliday is a professional, intelligent, and human-oriented platform that gives unparalleled experience of job hunting for holiday-workers.
Mr. Lau Siu Fung, founder of Wheelman and the Champion of Imagine Cup 2016 “World citizenship” category, shared his experience of Imagine Cup. Wheelman is an app built to help wheel-chair users identify the nearest barrier-free facility in order to provide more detailed information on barrier-free facilities.
“At Microsoft, we strongly believe that technology can be used as a tool to empower every student, teacher, parent and educational institution to create the world of tomorrow. We want to provide technological support students need to spark their creativity and equip them for the jobs of the future. Imagine Cup is one of the platforms that allow students to exchange ideas with others from the world and be inspired” said Joelle.
Through Imagine Cup. The world young, aspiring developers gain a keen understanding of what is needed to bring a concept to a market. The last year’s winning team in Hong Kong, Wheelman, rolled out and took off in popularity among wheel-chair users. It is an app built to help wheel-chair users identify the nearest barrier-free facility in order to provide more detailed information on barrier-free facilities.
Imagine Cup rings in its 15th anniversary with $100,000 top prize and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO
The Hong Kong’s champion team received a HK$30,000 cash award and an opportunity to participate the Worldwide Final to complete in worldwide championships, while the first runner-up and the second runner-up received HK$20,000 and HK$10,000 cash award respectively. With a maximum of 3 members per team, students were encouraged to submit their projects with no category limitation.
Teams from around the world have advanced through various rounds of competition all leading up to July’s showdown. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Imagine Cup, the top prize will be doubled to US$100,000 for the team that is crowned the Imagine Cup Worldwide Champion and the winning team will be awarded with a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.
Imagine Cup is a global competition that empowers the next generation of students to team up and use their creativity, knowledge of technology and Microsoft Azure tools to create applications that shape how we live, work and play. Every year tens of thousands of students from across the globe compete for cash, travel and prizes and for the honor of taking home the Imagine Cup.
Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 Hong Kong Final results
Champion and Most Innovative Award
Sense+, The Polytechnic University
Sense+ is a cognitive application enabling the visually impaired to see, explore, get notified and search with ears. The team uses advanced technology including artificial intelligence to address a real-world’s problem and making it easily accessible by accommodating the application to mobile devices.
First runner-up
Taiwan AI, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Taiwan AI is an intelligent traffic system that uses reinforcement learning to revolutionize the way traffic lights interact with drivers. The system improves traffic system efficiency by managing the idled traffic lanes. The team has also used Uber APIs for testing in previous campus hackathon to enhance the practicality of the system.
Second runner-up
MatchHoliday, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
A professional, intelligent, and human-oriented platform that gives unparalleled experience of job hunting for holiday-workers. The team used chatbot & computer vision to revamp the user experience to be more human-friendly and hustle-free.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, please contact:
Microsoft Hong Kong Limited
Alice Li
Tel: +852 2804 4130
Email: [email protected]
Hill+Knowlton Strategies for Microsoft
Raymond Woo / Nicole Chan
Tel: +852 2894 6355 / Tel: +852 2894 6207
Email: [email protected] /[email protected]
