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Two teams from Qatar University won the Imagine Cup national finals organised by Microsoft Qatar. They will represent Qatar in the first Imagine Cup Pan-Arab Semi-Finals, which will take place in Doha in June with participants from 12 Arab countries.
The event held under the patronage of HE Dr Hessa Sultan al- Jaber, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, saw participation from five local teams representing universities across Qatar.
Microsoft Qatar General Manager Naim Yazbeck; Executive Director, ICT & Society, ictQATAR Reem al-Mansoori; and Amintas Neto, from Microsoft Middle East and Africa, held a press conference to announce the winners of the competition.
Team “I Copy You” from Qatar University was announced the winner in the World Citizenship category. The team members are Wa’ed Adel Hakouz; Nour Abdelmajid Musa and the mentor is Dr Uvais Ahmed Qidwai.
The team presented a low-cost educational software designed to build communications skills among children with autism. The software detects the motions of the child and provides feedback to a RoboSapien, a low-cost humanoid robot which uses the information to mimic the movements of the child.
Team “Techno Commando Squad,” also from Qatar University, was announced the winner in the Innovation category. The team comprises of Ali Thaer Abed, Mohamed Gamal, Ola Ibrahim Shamia and Peter Ezzat Antoun and the mentor is Dr John John Cabibhan.
The team’s project merges existing rehabilitation and fitness technology solutions through Microsoft Kinect to provide a unique physiotherapy solution. The new innovation is a suit equipped with six accelerometers that connect to a microprocessor that reads the patient’s movements and compares them to the doctor’s instructions.
For the first time in the Arab region, Microsoft Qatar will be hosting the Pan-Arab Semi-Finals on the 3rd and 4th of June. The two winning teams from the Pan-Arab Semi-Finals will represent the Arab region in the Innovation and Citizenship categories at the worldwide finals in Seattle,Washington.
Yazbeck said: “Technology and innovation have the ability to make a difference in our world, and Microsoft has built on the incredible ambition and potential of talented youth as they build the most innovative software, applications, and portals.”
Al-Mansoori said: “It is my pleasure to congratulate the winning teams and I would like to encourage more student teams to join the future rounds of the competition, which is really a great platform to discover and harness their innovative ideas.”
