By Emeka Aginam
After presenting their innovative solution along side seven other teams from the Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics, Team Lifewatch, in the World Citizenship category from the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, (ABUAD) last week Lagos won the national finals of the 2015 Microsoft Imagine Cup competition.

From left: Obinaju, Adeyemo Oluwaseum Kayode, Ahwin Kevin and Sobola Timilehin David and Celestine Ezeokoye, former Iamgine Cup participants coasching the 2015 Nigerian national winners of Microsoft Imagine Cup students competition held yesterday in Lagos. Photo by Emeka Aginam

Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier technology competition for the smartest tech students all over the world.

Although every solution that was presented has the capacity to solve problems, the panel of judges after thorough analysis and review of the eight projects presented by the teams , adjudged Team Lifewatch as the winner of the Nigerian national finals

Reasons: The solution has chances to address clear local issues, reasonable chances of success in its appropriate market given the team’s existing plan, easy to use among other unique features.
Accordingly, each team had pitched their project and answered questions from judging panel comprised of highly respected Nigerian IT experts and entrepreneurs.

By winning the national finals, the team made up of four innovative ABUAD students; Raymond Obinaju, Adeyemo Oluwaseum Kayode, Ahwin Kevin and Sobola Timilehin David has qualified for World Semi-finals enabling them to compete for a spot in the World finals when they scale through in the Semi-finals.

They were accompanied to the competition by their staff mentors from ABUAD; Mr. Bayo Ogundipe, Mr. Mobolaji Tenibiaje, and Mr. Daniel Ale.

Other teams which competed for the much coveted national finals winner included, Teamx-Dev, Team Inspire, Team Yurix, Team FlairTech, Team Paradigm, among others. The wining team from ABUAD had presented a health solution called AsthmaVisor.

The AsthmaVisor Solution consists of a Mobile Application operating alongside a wearable device, which monitors and supervises asthmatic patients’ health status, ensuring that they stay safe and well informed of their environments. It is a solution geared towards a more cost-effective and efficient way of supervising asthmatic patients, especially children.

According to the team leader, Raymond Obianuju who was full of excitement after the announcement of the result said that the product is configured to monitor the patient’s environment and give early warning signals if a threat to the patient’s health exists.

If the patient eventually has an attack, he explained that the device would send emergency messages as well as inform the patient’s pre-defined emergency contacts, alerting them of the situation and providing the location where the patient was last seen.

“I am happy that my team won the national finals.The journey to semi-finals has just begun. We will make it to the global stage by God’s grace when we win semi-finals. There are positive signals that we will make it to the global finals given the innovative solution we have”, he said.

Addressing the students after the panel of judges had announced the result at the Idea Hub, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, where the competition was held, Shina Oyetosho, Developer and Platform Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Nigeria told the gathering that everybody was a winner. You have just started the journey to the global stage, he said.

“It does not end here. You all have amazing solutions but there has to be one winner. It is not about what happens here but what happens after this. The fact that you did not win does not mean that your solution is not good. Use it to change the world. Use it to solve world toughest problems”, Oyetosho who is passionate about start-ups said.

For the mentor of the Team Nigeria, Mobolaji Tenibiaje, a lecture at ABUAD , “I am excited and glad that my team(Team LifeWatch) could make it to the semi-finals. Winning the nationals is a plus, but we have the whole world to contend with. The Nigeria finals just simulated and triggered the possibility mentality of the Founder (Aare Afe Babalola) of our university Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) in the team. I am sure the team will make it to the global finals given the innovative solution we have. By the grace of God ,we will daze the entire world of the exploit residing in Team Lifewatch.”

With a competition theme inspired by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems,” the Imagine Cup now in its 13th year has grown to become the world’s premier student technology competition.

Team LifeWatch will join other bright young minds to compete on the Africa stage at the Africa semi-Finals stage and if they come out successful will go on to represent not just Nigeria but Africa at the World Finals.

The 2015 competitors will gain real life experience, make new friends, and harness the power of technology to take on the world’s toughest problems.
As Microsoft enters the final code hunt challenge for the 2015 edition of the software competition, for the second year in a row, there appears to anxiety among the World Semi-finalist students struggling to make it the World Finals that will be held in Microsoft’s hometown, Seattle, from July 27 to July 31, 2015.