Microsoft Imagine Cup Junior Winners for 2023

I wanted to shine the spotlight on this annual competition run by Microsoft as I’ve personally found it to be so inspiring, giving me confidence that upcoming generations of creative, problem-solving technical innovators have the mindset and ambition to solve the world’s biggest issues.

This year’s competition had a focus of “AI for Good” and it saw the largest participation ever with entries from over 100 countries.

I don’t want this post to be a long read, all I ask is for you to stay with me long enough to read the short description of these winning entries (and remember that these have come from school students as young as 13 years old) – I promise you will feel inspired in the next 30 seconds.

• AI for Memory Loss, Ireland: AI for Memory Loss is an app that uses Azure Cognitive Services to help people with dementia navigate through their daily lives.
• Data Dynamos, India: Cancerscope is an AI app that creates a predictive model to find the probability of cancer in a person and recommends preventive measures.
• FoodPrintBot, Singapore: FoodPrintBot is a multimodal bot that can detect food waste, encourage people to donate food based on the amount of waste, and provide advice on how to reduce food waste in the future.
• Frontiers, China: AI for Analyzing the Completeness of Damaged Cultural Relics is an AI-driven cultural relic generator app that creates complete images and 3D models of damaged relics, assesses the condition of artifacts, and prioritizes restoration projects.
• GOATS, Vietnam: IntelliGlow is a smart lighting system that minimizes electricity consumption while maintaining sufficient lighting.
• Hacktivists of Wall Street, United States: Educate AI is an education tool that makes learning easy for anyone, including those with learning disabilities or those who cannot afford private tutors, by creating notes and quizzes from any video in any language.
• Rehabity, United Arab Emirates: Rehabity is an AI skin-applied patch and app that helps people recovering from addiction.
• Shiny Stars, Saudi Arabia: Smart chip for aphasia patients is a smart chip that connects to a smartphone application, compatible with all spoken and written international human languages, and allows communication between aphasia patients and other people by translating it into readable or audible text.
• SoySquad, United Kingdom: StreetSmarts is an AI app that displays the safest route for pedestrians allowing for easy and safe navigation of busy streets around London and application for cities of the world.
• TA Cubed, Australia: TA Cubed is an AI interactive mobile application that provides resources and techniques designed to relieve anxiety disorders and address mental health for children and teenagers.

Inspired? I hope so. I’ve been lucky enough to judge submissions for this competition since it started 4 years ago and I can’t tell you how humbling it is to see such young minds tackling such hugely complex issues without commercial interest or motives, just wanting to do good. If you are interested in learning more or becoming involved take a look at the following resources.

• For students: Microsoft Learn Student Hub, Microsoft MakeCode, Minecraft Education Hour of Code, and Hacking STEM.

• For educators: Microsoft Learn Educator Center and Microsoft Learn for Educators Program

Students older than 16 who want to take their learning and competitive experience even further are encouraged to register for the 2024 Imagine Cup Challenge and/or apply to be a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador at a university or college.

Watch for future Imagine Cup Junior competition information at Imagine Cup Junior 2023 | Imagine Cup (microsoft.com).