New Delhi, March 11: Microsoft on Thursday announced that two team of Indian students teams have advanced to "2021 Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals" -- an annual innovation contest for students and technology enthusiasts.
The two winning teams -- Team Detected from G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur and Team Intelli-Sense from the Vellore Institute of Technology -- focused on cybersecurity to counter deep fakes (Team Detected) and assistive technology for people with low vision (Team Intelli-Sense).
"Microsoft's Imagine Cup is a commitment to create a culture of innovation in students, enabling them to use technology for solving some of the world's most critical social and sustainability problems," Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said in a statement.
Imagine Cup is a global competition designed to empower students to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies to solve some of the world's most critical social and sustainability problems.
The 2021 India edition saw 353 team entries and over 10K individual entries from students across the country, competing to solve global challenges across four categories -- Earth, Education, Health, and Lifestyle.
Microsoft joined hands with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for the India edition of Imagine Cup. As a knowledge partner, NSDC enabled nation-wide reach of the challenge across states, districts, and skill development centres.
The finals of Imagine Cup India were judged by an eminent panel, including Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, Pulkit Jain, Co-founder and Product Head of Vedantu and Manish Kumar, CEO and MD, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
The 2021 edition was the first virtual edition of Imagine Cup.
The four finalists from India, who were the winners in each category received a Surface Go 2 device each -- Earth (Team DENSITY), Education (Team CodeCapture), Health (Team Intelli-Sense) and Lifestyle (Team Detected).
The top four teams will be awarded USD 10,000 each for the best solution in each category at the world finals. The world champion will take home the Imagine Cup and win an additional $75,000 along with a mentorship opportunity with Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella.
