Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015 Singapore Finals: Winners profiles

 |   Singapore News Center

Each year, the global Microsoft Imagine Cup provides a platform for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to collaborate and develop technology applications for the market.

This year, the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015 Singapore Finals saw three outstanding teams from Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Informatics and IT, Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Biomedical Engineering and School of Engineering, as well as Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Interactive and Digital Media clinch top spots for their innovative technology applications that displayed strong potential in changing the way we live, work and play.

In recognition of their wins, Microsoft Singapore interviewed the three teams that topped the Innovation, Citizenship and Games competitions. In these interviews, the teams shared the inspiration behind their ideas and highlighted key moments in their Imagine Cup journey as they strive to be among the six teams to be selected for the upcoming Asia Pacific Semi-Finals, to represent their country at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015 World Finals in Seattle.

Team 3DiMS
Singapore Finals Winner, Innovation Competition

Team 3DiMS, consisting Hong Xuenong, In Jie Xen, Nur Raihanah Binte Mohd Harion and Umma Gopinathan Pillai from the Nanyang Polytechnic School of Biomedical Engineering and School of Engineering, took the top prize in the Innovation Competition for their 3DiMS (3D Measurement System) project. 3DiMS is a software that enables quick and accurate 3D measurements of the Intracerebral Haemorrhage (ICH) volume within potential stroke patients’ bodies using consumer devices such as the Microsoft Surface and the Windows Phone. Developed in consultation with doctors, neurosurgeons, research scientists and industry partners in Singapore, the solution provides a faster, more convenient and cost-effective way of detecting potential strokes, and has the potential to improve the care provided to stroke patients worldwide.

(From left) Nobuhiro Ito, Director for Developer Experience & Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore, Umaa Gopinathan Pillai, Nur Raihanah Binte Mohd Harion, Jason In and Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
(From left) Nobuhiro Ito, Director for Developer Experience & Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore, Umaa Gopinathan Pillai, Nur Raihanah Binte Mohd Harion, Jason In and Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore

What is your motivation behind the 3DiMS project?
We came up with 3DiMS with the aim of shortening the time needed by medical practitioners to calculate the ICH volume within patients’ bodies. This innovation could play an important role to help save more lives by detecting potential strokes at a much quicker rate than traditional analysis procedures, and we hope that doctors, surgeons and radiographers at government and private hospitals worldwide, as well as research institutes like A*STAR will be able to make use of this innovation in real life situations.

Using a consumer device such as a smartphone or a Surface to capture the CT/MRI images from the CT/MRI terminals, non-medically-trained users can use the 3DiMS to accurately calculate the ICH volume within patients’ bodies.
Using a consumer device such as a smartphone or a Surface to capture the CT/MRI images from the CT/MRI terminals, non-medically-trained users can use the 3DiMS to accurately calculate the ICH volume within patients’ bodies.
The final ICH volume calculated with 3DiMS
The final ICH volume calculated with 3DiMS

How has the understanding of computer programming enabled you to create innovative technology solutions like 3DiMS?
In order to develop 3DiMS, we put in a lot of work to learn about computer vision before implementing the solution. The more we learnt, the more we were surprised by the power of computer programming, as it has the ability to do a lot more things humans cannot do in an extraordinarily short time. In 3DiMS, we leveraged functions such as colour-scale conversion, contour recognition and algorithms to determine the desired ICH area in one image using a simple consumer device. With these functions, there is plenty of potential for us to create many more solutions that could solve real world problems and improve the lives of people.

Describe your most memorable Imagine Cup 2015 moment so far.
Imagine Cup 2015 was a very good learning opportunity for us. In order to push us to our maximum potential and make our project stand out among the sea of competitors, we have to keep on learning and improving the application until it meets the stringent requirements of our mentors. The most memorable moment was when our team was announced as the winner of the Singapore Finals. To us, the recognition was a strong vindication of our hard work and efforts, and it made all of us more confident and proud of what we have done. We certainly will treasure this opportunity to advance to the Asia Pacific Semi-Finals and to keep on pushing ourselves to do our very best till the end.

Team Mozter
Singapore Finals Winner, Citizenship Competition

Team Mozter, comprising Goi Jia Jian, Van Phuong Thanh and Kirk Yeo from Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Informatics and IT, took the championship in the Citizenship Competition for their mosquito monitoring platform. Called Mozter, the platform leverages on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the power of cloud technologies to enhance national mosquito surveillance and control by automating the mosquito data collection process. This automation process also helped to produce meaningful datasets that empower environment control officers to monitor mosquito data and take timely control actions where needed, improve the manual, time-consuming monitoring process currently being used by environment control officers today.

(From left) Nobuhiro Ito, Director for Developer Experience & Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore, Van Phuong Thanh, Tan Chun Siong, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore, Kirk Yeo, Goi Jia Jian and Amada Kiemas, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Asia Pacific
(From left) Nobuhiro Ito, Director for Developer Experience & Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore, Van Phuong Thanh, Tan Chun Siong, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore, Kirk Yeo, Goi Jia Jian and Amada Kiemas, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Asia Pacific

How did you come up with the idea for Mozter?
The idea for the project came up while we were doing our Enterprise Solutions and Entrepreneurship module in school, which required us to come up with an innovative solution to solving an existing issue or problem. At that time, Singapore was experiencing one of the worst dengue epidemics in history. In addition, one of our classmates was admitted into the hospital and warded in the Intensive Care Unit for dengue fever. It was at that point that the gravity of the problem sunk in, and that spurred us to work on a solution to solve the problem.

Mozter mosquito monitoring sensor
Mozter mosquito monitoring sensor

What are some of the unique points about your Mozter that can help improve people’s lives?
Currently, mosquito control programmes generally take weeks to collect relevant data before it can be processed into meaningful information. One unique feature of Mozter is its ability to deploy relatively low-cost, low-maintenance sensors at various parts of Singapore to collect specific data about the mosquito species detected in these areas quickly and accurately. With this data, we will be able to accurately visualise and analyse the mosquito activity in the areas, which will enable environment control officers to study mosquito activity patterns and take appropriate control measures in a timely manner, to help lives in Singapore.

Mozter mosquito monitoring dashboard showing local mosquito hotspots
Mozter mosquito monitoring dashboard showing local mosquito hotspots

Describe the most memorable moments of your Imagine Cup journey so far.
One memorable moment was when we were invited by the Environmental Health Institute (EHI), a public health laboratory of the National Environment Agency of Singapore (NEA), to visit their live mosquito labs to test our newly-built mosquito sensors – that was a truly amazing experience. We were also given the opportunity to understand how Singapore’s mosquito control programmes work – from placing the traps to the data collection process – and it was really intriguing to see how the EHI team worked behind the scenes in real life!


Team Illan
Singapore Finals Winner, Games Competition

Team Illan, comprising Ui Jia Wei, Stanley Chew, Leroy Liew and Clement Sim from the Nanyang Polytechnic School of Interactive and Digital Media clinched top spot in the Games Competition for their Illan 3D puzzle and exploration game. Set in a monochromatic world that has lost its colours and liveliness, the protagonist is motivated by his desire to restore the lost colours of his world through his unique ability to overcome in-game challenges and obstacles.

Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore, Patrick Shim, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Asia Pacific, Clement Sim Zhixuan
Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore, Patrick Shim, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Asia Pacific, Clement Sim Zhixuan

How did you come up with the idea of Illan?
We initially had a choice of either continuing on an existing project or start a new project with our own ideas. During our research process, we looked into an existing project given by our lecturers for inspiration, called “Colours”. After long discussions with the team, we decided that we liked the idea of “Colours” and agreed to play around with the concept of using colours in our game. Subsequently, Illan is born.

Scene in the Illan 3D puzzle and exploration game, where the protagonist strives to restore the lost colours of his world.
Scene in the Illan 3D puzzle and exploration game, where the protagonist strives to restore the lost colours of his world.

What are of the unique points about Illan that can help people in their daily lives?
The objective of Illan is to train the players to think quickly and creatively, and in the process, improve their problem-solving skills in our everyday lives. We believe that people shouldn’t give up when their solutions don’t work and we hope that Illan can inspire them to think of alternative routes to their destination whenever they run into obstacles.

How has your Imagine Cup 2015 journey been?
This is our first time participating in such a big competition and it was a great learning experience. We are proud to be able to showcase our work to the public, and it is rewarding to know that our efforts are recognised by industry leaders and our peers. We certainly made the school very proud that we came in first for the Games competition. This is an experience that we can proudly talk about even before graduating from school!

For more information on the Imagine Cup, please visit www.imaginecup.com

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