An Indian team Tuesday won the Asia Regional Final of the Microsoft's prestigious global competition for the most original technology project, inching closer to bag the USD 100,000 prize money at the world championship in the US.
The student trio of Aakash Bhadana and his friends Vasu Kaushik and Bharat Sundal developed "Caeli", the world's first smart automated anti-pollution and drug delivery mask specifically designed for asthmatic and chronic respiratory patients, which won the first position in the contest held in Sydney.
"Congrats team Caeli from India, 2019 #ImagineCup Asia Regional Final winners for their portable anti-pollution and drug-delivery mask utilizing Azure #MachineLearning. They're taking home USD 15,000 and a spot in the World Championship!" Microsoft Imagine Cup tweeted.
"What a day for our #ImagineCup Asia Regional Final teams and #MSFTStudentPartners! But the fun doesn't end yet tomorrow, students are hanging out at #MSIgniteTheTour and will pitch their demos for a chance to win a People's Choice award," it said.
Every year, Imagine Cup celebrates the top student teams that bring their biggest, boldest ideas to life. Each team creates an original technology project from start to finish while competing on a global stage for the title of World Champion.
This year, three teams from India were among 12 finalists competing for over USD 20,000 in prizes in Sydney, Australia.
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The winners will move forward to the 2019 Imagine Cup World Championship to be held in May.
"We have been working on this project for the past one year. While it began as a research project on air pollution, soon after we decided to develop it as a product to help all those patients who are suffering from respiratory issues and need it the most," Bhadana, who is from Delhi, was quoted as saying by Microsoft website.
Caeli is a sleek, portable, easy-to-fit-inside-your-pocket nebulizer and a customized mask. Drug doses can be scheduled through the app.
In case of breathing difficulties, the app allows the user to switch on the intelligent mode that provides instant relief drugs. The app also monitors air quality in real-time and helps choose the least polluted route to travel from one place to another.
"Caeli works on multi-disciplinary technologies and makes effective use of hardware capabilities and software intelligence. The device usage and sensor data is processed on the Azure platform," said Sundal.
"Taking home 2nd place in the #ImagineCup Asia Regional Final is team RailinNova from China for their Rail Component Inspection Robot, which identifies and processes railroad defects in real-time using #AI and #IoT. Congrats!," Microsoft Imagine Cup tweeted.
"Team AidUSC from the Philippines finished 3rd in the #ImagineCup Asia Regional Final with their project, Aqua Check, which empowers users to analyze a water sample with #Azure Custom Vision and map contamination location. Great work!," it said.
The three Indian teams were selected among hundreds of teams from 17 countries who submitted projects for the chance to move forward to the Asia Regional Final of the mega championship.
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