Kenyan students shine in Microsoft Imagine Cup

The competition has selected three teams from Kenya to represent the country and advance in the competition

JOHANNESBURG, March 23 (ANA) – Microsoft’s annual global student technology competition, Imagine Cup has revealed the entries selected to be a part of the World semi-finals round taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In a statement on Monday, Microsoft says the competition has selected three teams from Kenya to represent the country and advance in the competition.

The teams, who have impressed with their solutions that tackle health, lifestyle, and educational issues all demonstrate great understanding by creating solutions that directly speak to socio-economic issues within their own surroundings and globally.

Team Cafrilearn has created a project called Makini that consists of a mobile application that supports devices and allows for the facilitation of digital learning at affordable cost to low income families and communities that have been marginalised.

Another project created by team Intellivolt monitors over voltage, under voltage and power outages. Alerts from Azure applications in the form of SMS and emails are sent to relevant authorities in real time.

Lastly, team REWEBA (Remote Well Baby) have created a solution that serves as an early warning system – digitally monitoring growth parameters of babies and sending them to doctors remotely for timely intervention.

It combines a variety of technologies to provide innovative functionalities for infant screening.

This year’s competition has seen the brightest young minds from across the world collaborate virtually to reimage solutions to address today’s global challenges in four categories: lifestyle, education, earth and health.

The winning team will take home the Imagine Cup trophy along with US$ 75,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. This year the competition includes category prizes totalling US$60,000 and Microsoft Learn Challenge monthly give-aways.

“In the current global climate, it’s become crucially important to, through platforms such as Imagine Cup, create positive change using new tools and resources,” country manager Microsoft Kenya’s Kendi Nderitu said.

“This is the main reason why with this year’s competition, we wanted to empower students to reimagine solutions and remove the physical and geographical borders – creating a global stage, ” he said.

“The four categories for this year’s competition have been introduced to recognise and highlight more of the issues students are passionate about.”

“We are absolutely thrilled that the Kenya teams have created solutions that are competing on a world scale.

“At Microsoft, providing platforms and creating environments that enable young innovators across that continent with a ‘breeding ground’ and resources from which to manifest and share their ideas has always been at the centre of our purpose through digital transformation,” Nderitu said.

Last year marked the 18th annual Imagine Cup. Six teams, including a team of bright young minds from Kenya, were selected to move forward to the World Championship and present their projects to compete for the 2020 trophy on the biggest stage yet, the Microsoft Build digital event.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay