Microsoft Imagine Cup 2016: Team Humane, 34 Others Pitch in Global Stage

Thirty-five teams from 34 countries around the world who arrived Seattle, Washington, Tuesday morning are set to compete for the worldwide finals of the Microsoft Imagine cup 2016 series.

Team Humane from Obafemi Awolowo University, O.A.U, Ile- Ife, had developed a solution called Humane which simplifies mobile apps for the visually impaired.

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges.

On Wednesday evening, team presentations commemced with hands-on-judging will begin for 13 solutions in innovation category, 13 solutions also in the World Citizenship and 9 solutions in the Games category.

From the statistics, about 120 students from 34 countries around the world will be showcasing their innovative solutions before panel of judges.

Nearly 85 percent of this year's world finalists’ teams, according to fact sheet, leveraged Windows 10 or Windows 10 mobile, even as many have created apps for the Windows stores.

Tunisia and South Africa are among the Teams jostling with Team Humane from Nigeria to win worldwide finals with their innovative solutions that were designed to solve local challenges.

The Team Humane application defines a new approach for mobile app development for the visually impaired.

By connecting their three button device to their humane software, the visually impaired can surf the web, play music, use calculator, control home appliances, make calls, check the time or date and use the camera to determine what is in front. In addition to the current features a linear and Braille keyboard is included.

This is the 14th year of Imagine cup. It started in 2003 with just 2,000 students from 25 countries.

To date, nearly, 1.8 million students from more than 190 countries had engaged with Imagine Cup program.

Nationals finals were in 55 countries worldwide in 2016 while nearly 500 of the world’s top student developers advanced to the 2016 world semi- finals rounds.