Taiwanese students have once again won the top prize at the Microsoft Imagine Cup, billed by Microsoft as the world’s premier student technology competition, focused on finding solutions to real-world issues.
A team from National Tsing Hua University won this year’s embedded technology development competition with a project titled “Right! This Way,” which computes the safest fire-escape routes from a building in real time using a network of wireless sensors.
The team took home US$25,000 in prize money.
Photo: CNA
Team member Chen Shuo-hung (陳碩鴻) said the fire-escape system analyzes the areas where fire is detected and computes the safest escape routes.
This is the second year in a row that Taiwanese students have won first place in the embedded development category, following last year’s victory by a team from National Chiao Tung University for an energy-saving electricity meter.
A team from National Taipei University of Technology took home third place in the digital media category by creating a digital belt that allows a pregnant woman to contact her doctor directly via the belt, which also allows the doctor to remotely monitor the fetus.
The team won US$3,000 with a video that showed how the belt, dubbed the Baby Guardian, worked.
Team member Chang Hsiu-ju (張秀如) said the team went to New York’s Central Park to find a pregnant woman to wear the belt for the video, which they created in 30 hours.
This year, more than 350,000 students from more than 70 countries entered the Microsoft-sponsored competition, which challenges students to use technology to tackle hunger, poverty, lack of education, disease control, healthcare, the environment and other crucial problems facing the planet.
A total of 424 students participated in the final round of the event in 11 different categories.
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