tech:

taffy

Imagine Cup 2012 Winners Announced

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Microsoft announced the winners of the 10th annual Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s student technology competition. Twenty-three percent of Imagine Cup projects this year were created to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities such as visual and hearing impairments and diseases that limit a human’s physical mobility.

Software and Game Design Winners at Imagine Cup 2012: Team quadSquad from the Ukraine took top honors in the Software Design Competition with its device, Enable Talk, which uses a pair of gloves equipped with 15 flex sensors and a microcontroller that continuously recognize sign language patterns, which are then transmitted via Bluetooth to a Windows Phone device that uses the Microsoft Speech API and Bing API to translate the signs into audio.

Teams competed in two Game Design competitions — Game Design: Xbox/Windows and Game Design: Phone. In Game Design: Xbox/Windows, TANG Thai, from Thailand, focused on protecting the environment and preventing deforestation. In Game Design: Phone, Drexel Dragons, from the United States, created a game designed to teach math and problem solving to elementary school students.

The following are the respective winners in the core Imagine Cup Competitions:

  • Software Design: QuadSquad (Ukraine), Coccolo (Japan), Wi-GO (Portugal).
  • Game Design – Xbox/Windows: TANG Thai (Thailand), The Doers (Brazil), Hotfix (Belgium)
  • Game Design – Phone:  Drexel Dragons (United States), Ecosia (France), Turtle Games (Hungary)

Respective Winners of Imagine Cup Challenges

  • IT Challenge: Alexandru Ticlea (Romania), Sherif Talaat (Egypt), Joshua Sim (Singapore)
  • Kinect Fun Labs Challenge: Team Interlab (Brazil), Team Whiteboard Pirates (United States), Team Flexifly (Poland)
  • Windows Azure Challenge: Virtual Dreams Azure (Brazil), Complex (Romania), The Klein Team (Algeria)
  • Windows Metro Style App Challenge:  Virtual Dreams Metro (Brazil), NLife (Ukraine), TokTok (Korea)
  • Windows Phone Challenge:  Vivid (Egypt), The Stack (Poland), Aaltovation (Finland)
Other Awards
  • The People’s Choice Award: This is the only Imagine Cup award that is determined by the public, and was won by the D Labs team from India, who created software to help dyslexic children use games to learn more effectively by using Kinect for Xbox 360.
  • Health Awareness Award winners: Italian Ingenium Team (Italy)
  • Environmental Sustainability Award winners: Greenway (Germany)
The Imagine Cup 2012 competition winners were announced at the Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, in front of 106 student teams. The event was the culmination of a five-day celebration of technology, teamwork and innovation. More than 350 students from 75 countries traveled to Sydney after competing in local and online events. Cash prizes totaling approximately $175,000 were awarded across eight competition categories. Imagine Cup 2012 sponsors included Avanade, Bing, Bradesco, Coca-Cola, Microsoft Studios, Nokia and Windows.
 Russia will host the 11th annual Imagine Cup in St. Petersburg in July 2013.

[Image: One of three all-female teams in the Imagine Cup’s Software Design category, Team Grawesome from Oman built a mobile application that uses GPS to track when blood banks have shortages. | Image Courtesy: Microsoft]

Just in

Apple sued in a landmark iPhone monopoly lawsuit — CNN

The US Justice Department and more than a dozen states filed a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, accusing the giant company of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market, writes Brian Fung, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez.

Google is bringing satellite messaging to Android 15 — The Verge

Google’s second developer preview for Android 15 has arrived, bringing long-awaited support for satellite connectivity alongside several improvements to contactless payments, multi-language recognition, volume consistency, and interaction with PDFs via apps, writes Jess Weatherbed. 

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is paid more than the heads of Meta, Pinterest, and Snap — combined — QZ

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has been blasted by Redditors and in media reports over his recently-revealed, super-sized pay package of $193 million in 2023, writes Laura Bratton. 

British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman joins Microsoft — BBC

Microsoft has announced British Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman will lead its newly-formed division, Microsoft AI, according to the BBC report. 

UnitedHealth Group has paid more than $2 billion to providers following cyberattack — CNBC

UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare, writes Ashley Capoot.