A solution that helps people with chronic back pain using Microsoft’s Kinect was the local winning project at this year’s edition of The Imagine Cup, a competition hosted by Microsoft Malta for students. The winning team PhAid, composed of four University students, will be travelling to St Petersburg in Russia between the 8th and the 11th July to compete in the Imagine Cup World Finals.
As in previous years, this competition has enticed a good number of students from MCAST and University to submit their innovative projects or technology that through any of Microsoft’s platforms, could help solve global but everyday common problems. This year’s categories were Games, Innovation and World Citizenship
Presenting their winning project during the finals hosted at Microsoft Malta’s newly built Microsoft Innovation Center, PhAid’s team members explained how their solution utilizes the Kinect in order to help people with their physiotherapy exercises allowing them to do their exercises at their own pace and at their own home, thus improving their daily life. In their presentation, the four winners also explained how the innovation behind their project lies in the fact that as the patient exercises, the system tracks his progress and provides a detailed report which can later on be shared with their physiotherapist.
“It is great that students challenge themselves from time to time and are rewarded for their efforts,” said Adrianna Zammit, Country Manager for Malta & Cyprus during the presentation of awards to the winners and the runners-up. “Today’s society is basing itself more and more on a culture built on technology and innovation and it is always positive when our youth explore their potential to develop technology applications that can create more wealth and well-being,” added Ms Zammit.
Second place was awardd to B-Team from the Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology who created a game that focuses on using imagination and thought combined together to solve a query. Whilst playing passage the player will be faced with different forms of puzzles, such as mazes or platforms in which he/she will acquire and/or use an orb, which will allow a variety of abilities to help solve the puzzles.
Team Binio, created Recuerdo - a solution that aims at making life easier for people suffering from dementia and their carers. Recuerdo, is a Windows Phone based application, which asks people with dementia, questions throughout the day, in a way that keeps them constantly alert and thus helping them finding it easier to remember things. This process has been proven to help improve the memory of people suffering from dementia.
Over the past ten years, more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in the Imagine Cup.