Microsoft Singapore has announced that three teams of students from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have clinched the top spots in all three categories of this year’s Imagine Cup Singapore finals, breaking through intense competition which saw participation by over a hundred students from numerous institutions of higher learning in Singapore.
The three teams are:
Team STAND — Comprising students from NYP School of IT and NUS, Team STAND won the Innovation Competition with their facial recognition software capable of automatically identifying the age, race, gender and emotion of any audience member in a crowd in real time.
Team Elites — Team Elites,fromNYP School of Engineering, broke through in the World Citizenship Competition with a Windows Phone-based solution that aims to help people with hearing and speech impairments to communicate better with those around them.
Team LifeChoices — NYP School of IT’s Team LifeChoices took home the Games Competition championship with their roleplaying game which lets players simulate making life-changing decisions without actually risking any real-life entities, and an original, self-built game engine will randomize gameplay scenarios based on the choices players make.
All three teams will now proceed to the World Semifinals to vie for the honor of representing Singapore in the World Finals, which will be held in Redmond, Washington, USA, from July 29, 2014 to August 2, 2014, where cash prizes of US$50,000 per category and other awards await. From the World Semifinals, three teams from the entire Asia Pacific region will be chosen to proceed to the World Finals. These three teams will be announced on May 28, 2014.
Held annually since 2003, Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition, known affectionately by participants both past and present as “the Olympics of student technology competitions”, and has inspired countless students over the past 12 years to dream about the boundless opportunities technology offers to enhance people’s lives.
Innovative young minds from Nanyang Polytechnic and NUS clinch top spots at Microsoft Imagine Cup Singapore 2014
9 students now stand a chance to represent Singapore at the Imagine Cup 2014 World Finals in Redmond, Washington, USA
SINGAPORE – 22 April 2014 – Microsoft Singapore today announced that three teams of students from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have clinched the top spots in all three categories of this year’s Imagine Cup Singapore finals, breaking through intense competition which saw participation by over a hundred students from numerous institutions of higher learning in Singapore.
Team STAND, comprising members from NYP School of IT and NUS, took home the championship in the Innovation Competition with their facial recognition software that runs on Microsoft software and the Microsoft cloud. Called Face Analyzer for Crowd Emotions (FACE), the app runs on any standard PC with a camera input device, and is capable of automatically identifying the age, race, gender and emotion of any audience member in a crowd in real time. FACE has many potential applications—including but not limited to early childhood education and television show rating enforcement—and has already garnered endorsements from organizations such as School of the Arts (SOTA), Tanglin Trust School and Starhub.
Team Elites from NYP School of Engineering broke through the competition in the World Citizenship Competition with their project iHEARD, a Windows Phone-based solution that aims to help people with hearing and speech impairments to communicate better with those around them. Features such as speech synthesis and speech recognition enable these people to engage in phone calls, conversation and listening to audio content from many multimedia sources in a cost-effective, portable, and user-friendly package.
In the Games Competition corner, NYP School of IT’s Team LifeChoices impressed judges with their roleplaying game LifeChoices. The game lets players simulate making life-changing decisions without actually risking any real-life entities, and an original, self-built game engine will randomize gameplay scenarios based on the choices players make. The idea behind LifeChoices is closely linked with Singapore’s push for Character and Citizenship Education, and players are encouraged to apply the core values of respect, responsibility, resilience, integrity, care and harmony in their gameplay.
All three teams will now proceed to the World Semifinals to vie for the honor of representing Singapore in the World Finals, which will be held in Redmond, Washington, USA, from July 29, 2014 to August 2, 2014, where cash prizes of US$50,000 per category and other awards await. From the World Semifinals, three teams from the entire Asia Pacific region will be chosen to proceed to the World Finals. These three teams will be announced on May 28, 2014.
“This year’s student teams showed a great amount of maturity and inventiveness in their thinking, and really impressed us with their Imagine Cup projects,” said Nobuhiro Ito, Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Singapore. “No matter which team proceeds to the World Finals, all three winning teams today will definitely go the distance if they continue to display the same level of enthusiasm and creativity. This journey is far from over for them!”
“Dream it. Build it. Live it.”
Held annually since 2003, Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition, known affectionately by participants both past and present as “the Olympics of student technology competitions”, and has inspired countless students over the past 12 years to dream about the boundless opportunities technology offers to enhance people’s lives.
The motto for this year’s Imagine Cup – “Dream it. Built it. Live it.” – captures the spirit of the competition as it evolves to address the changing needs of the student competitors. Imagine Cup cultivates a spirit of entrepreneurialism throughout the year-long competition and creates opportunities for students to learn how to launch their business and bring ideas to market, inspiring students around the world to innovate across all of Microsoft’s technology platforms and change our world for the better.
Imagine Cup centers around three Competitions: Innovation, World Citizenship, and Games.
Innovation: The Imagine Cup Innovation Competition honors apps that deliver technology innovations that advance user experiences in major categories such as social networks, search, classifieds or online shopping — or that create entirely new categories. Prizes: First Place, US$50,000; Second Place, US$10,000; Third Place, US$5,000.
World Citizenship: The Imagine Cup World Citizenship Competition honors the software application with the greatest potential to make a positive contribution to the betterment of humanity. An entrant in the World Citizenship Competition might tackle a vexing social or medical problem, promote education or generally harness the power of technology to enrich lives.Prizes: First Place, US$50,000; Second Place, US$10,000; Third Place, US$5,000.
Games: The Imagine Cup Games Competition honors the best student games built on Microsoft platforms. Microsoft is looking for fun, original games that are well-made and could find an enthusiastic audience. Game themes and content are up to the students, but content needs to be suitable for a broad, diverse audience. Prizes: First Place, US$50,000; Second Place, US$10,000; Third Place, US$5,000.
In addition, Imagine Cup is today a year-long experience with online challenges that are mapped to the Software Development Lifecycle leading up to the World Finals, giving students numerous opportunities to compete and innovate. Examples of these challenges include the Windows & Windows Phone Challenge, Apps for Office Challenge, User Experience Challenge, and more. Teams that submit the same project and participate in all challenges will have the opportunity to receive a wealth of feedback and experience in developing their idea into the strongest possible contender for the World Semifinals and World Finals rounds.
In Singapore, participating teams were judged by a panel of experienced industry leaders and entrepreneurs, including:
Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
Nobuhiro Ito, Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Singapore
Arnaud Bonzom, Assistant Director, Career Development Centre, Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Social Impact, and Technology, INSEAD
Tiam Yang, Founder, Tyler Projects
Arnaud Bonzom, who advises MBA students and alumni on entrepreneurship in Asia-Pacific at the graduate business school INSEAD, said, “Imagine Cup never fails to showcase how much talent we have in the young students in Singapore, and it serves as a reminder that innovation is never restricted to any age group. I was particularly impressed with Team Elites and their project that aims to help people with hearing and speech impediments, as it is an excellent example of using technology for social impact.”
Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore, said, “In a time where innovation is prized, the Imagine Cup is a software competition that provides a platform for students to bring their best ideas, leveraging technology and working together to showcase solutions that will drive positive change in our community. Imagine Cup has seen thousands of bright young minds over the last 12 years. I hope that this competition continues to provide the environment that helps cultivate the next generation of technology and business leaders.”
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About the Microsoft Imagine Cup
Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. Initially introduced in the region in 2001 as the Asia Pacific Student .NET Competition, challenging tertiary students to design the best new web services solution, the name of the competition was changed to Imagine Cup in 2003. Today, it provides an opportunity for student technologists, developers, and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to collaborate, develop a technology application, create a business plan and gain a keen understanding of what they need to bring their concept to market. In Imagine Cup, the brightest young minds join together to exemplify the power of student innovation.
The Imagine Cup is part of Microsoft’s on-going and long-term commitment to students and academia, inspiring them to realize their full potential.
For more information on the Imagine Cup, please visit www.imaginecup.com
Fact Sheet: Winners of Imagine Cup Singapore 2014
INNOVATION COMPETITION
Team Name:
Team STAND
Institutions:
Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Information Technology
National University of Singapore, School of Computing
Team members:
Chia Yong Xiang (Diploma in Information Security, NYP)
Mong Yunheng (Bachelor of Computer Science, NUS)
Lai Zhiyuan (Diploma in Information Security, NYP)
Goh JunJie (Diploma in Information Security, NYP)
Project name:
Face Analyzer for Crowd Emotions (FACE)
Project description:
FACE is an innovative solution utilizing the latest Microsoft software and cloud computing solutions to provide crowd analytics. FACE runs on any standard Windows PC with a camera input device and it is able to determine the age, race, gender and emotion of any person in the crowd in real-time. FACE also provides a detailed analysis report on-demand to give the user feedback about their audience demographic. FACE is applicable in many scenarios including but not limited to early childhood education and television show rating enforcement. FACE is an affordable and customizable software offering, and has already garnered endorsements from organizations and schools such as SOTA (School of the Arts), Tanglin Trust School and Starhub.
Technologies used:
Microsoft Azure VM and Websites
Windows 8.1
Microsoft Azure Service Bus
Microsoft Azure Message Queue
Visual Studio C/C++, C#
Windows Driver Kit 8.0
SQL Server 2014 CTP2
Group photo:
From left—
Arnaud Bonzom, Assistant Director, Career Development Centre, Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Social Impact, and Technology, INSEAD
Mong Yun Heng, NUS
Lai Zhiyuan, NYP
Goh Jun Jie, NYP
Chia Yong Xiang, NYP
Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
Tiam Yang, Founder, Tyler Projects
WORLD CITIZENSHIP COMPETITION
Team Name:
Team Elites
Institutions:
Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Engineering
Team members:
Goh Yi Ling (Diploma in Telematics and Media Technology)
Natalene Lim (Diploma in Telematics and Media Technology)
Chew Zhi Jie (Diploma in Telematics and Media Technology)
Project name:
iHEARD
Project description:
iHEARD is a Windows Phone-based solution that aims to help people with hearing and speech impairments to communicate better with those around them. Features such as speech synthesis and speech recognition enable these people to engage in phone calls, conversation and listening to audio content from many multimedia sources in a cost-effective, portable, and user-friendly package. iHEARD addresses not just technical issues but also many psychosocial issues experienced by them, thus helping them to integrate and contribute to society.
Technologies used:
Windows Phone 8
Microsoft Speech
Bing Services
Group photo:
From left—
Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
Arnaud Bonzom, Assistant Director, Career Development Centre, Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Social Impact, and Technology, INSEAD
Goh Yi Ling, NYP
Chew Zhi Jie, NYP
Natalene Lim, NYP
Tiam Yang, Founder, Tyler Projects
Nobuhiro Ito, Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Singapore
GAMES COMPETITION
Team Name:
Team LifeChoices
Institutions:
Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Information Technology
Team members:
Lim Kok Meng (Diploma in Information Technology)
Tommy Khoo Kian Seng (Diploma in Business Informatics)
Project name:
Life Choices
Project description:
LifeChoices provides a safe and entertaining platform for players to simulate real life using realistic scenarios. Through a self-built and customised game engine, LifeChoices generates randomized scenarios based on various criteria to generate appropriate life scenarios – providing an environment close to everyday life where certain things are unpredictable. The idea behind LifeChoices is closely linked with Singapore’s push for Character and Citizenship Education, and players are encouraged to apply the core values of respect, responsibility, resilience, integrity, care and harmony in their gameplay, empowering them to make life-changing decisions without actually risking any real-life entities. The game also encourages students to reflect on their decisions and experiences in-game, learn from them, and apply their learning in real life.
Technologies used:
Microsoft Azure
Windows Phone 8
Facebook API
Group photo:
From left—
Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
Arnaud Bonzom, Assistant Director, Career Development Centre, Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Social Impact, and Technology, INSEAD
Lim Kok Meng, NYP
Tommy Khoo, NYP
Tiam Yang, Founder, Tyler Projects
Nobuhiro Ito, Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Singapore