By Emeka Aginam, who was in Sydney, Australia

Even as Ukrainian Team, quadSquad took the top position, taking home US$25,000 price after a keenly contested competition in the software design category which was the top in the series of awards at the just concluded 10th annual Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, held in Sydney, Australia, organizers of the competition, Microsoft, has urged the students to be their own boss after their graduation.

Next generation of software entrepreneurs
One thing which was clear at the end of the contest was that the next generation of technology innovators may have emerged following the innovative solutions developed by the competitors. However, Microsoft Imagine cup is a way for young entrepreneurs, innovators and developers to have an opportunity to develop an idea, create a product, set a clear business plan and even take their product to market.

Meanwhile, the winning device, Enable Talk, from the Ukrainian team uses a pair of gloves equipped with 15 flex sensors and a micro-controller 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. Their project allows deaf individuals to communicate verbally using custom-designed sensory gloves and a smartphone application to translate sign language gestures into speech.

“We were inspired to help our friends who are hearing- and speech-impaired to have the ability to communicate like everyone else,” Maxim Osika, Team quadSquad, said, adding that , “The Imagine Cup is an amazing experience; we’re thrilled to be here learning from the experts around us.”

It would be recalled that in 2004, more than 275 million people globally had moderate to profound hearing impairment, 80 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization’s most recent data. With health solutions being the major focus of all projects at the event, Swift Emergency Response (SwiftER) developed by team Nigeria from the the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife to improve the response of medical, security, fire and other services to emergency situations was also among interesting and innovative solutions showcased at the event.
Nigerian team to push further their solution
Although team Nigeria did not make it in the second round despite good outing, their solution directly affects the general populace who find themselves in critical emergency situations; especially countries with no unified helpline/emergency hotline. It is believed that their solution if fully deployed by the Nigerian government including those in the private sector will definitely address health challenges in emergency situations in the country and the rest of the world.