Lakshmi Narke is motivated by the illness that killed her buddy and claims the lives of 1.5 million folks yearly. Syntiche Musawu needs to assist folks like her brother, who struggles with isolation on account of a situation that disrupts how his mind understands what he’s listening to. Tyler Kim is aware of the problem of studying a brand new language and needs to make training extra accessible.
All three college students are among the many hundreds of contributors on this 12 months’s Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s world competitors for college kids to dream and construct new methods of utilizing know-how to enhance lives. In its 21-year historical past, the annual occasion has drawn greater than 2 million college students from 160 international locations to compete for prizes together with money, mentorship and coaching.
This 12 months, a lot of the innovation vitality revolves round AI, with the overwhelming majority of scholars utilizing it to spark concepts, from coaching AI fashions to detect ailments to utilizing cognitive APIs to assist folks with disabilities.
“Students want to make the world better by addressing and eventually solving serious problems, and the availability of AI is empowering them to do it,” says Charlotte Yarkoni, Microsoft president of Commerce and Ecosystems, which incorporates pupil developer applications.
“The increase in AI-powered projects in Imagine Cup this year shows us the potential of AI — the students you see working with AI now could soon create the next innovation we can’t live without.”
Here’s a have a look at a number of the groups utilizing AI, together with the prime three groups — TAWI, Eupnea and CS-M Tool — who made it to the 2023 Imagine Cup World Championship. That occasion was held at Microsoft Build 2023 with TAWI named because the winner.
TAWI
Growing up in Congo, Musawu watched her youthful brother battle with an auditory processing dysfunction that affected his skill to understand speech, resulting in difficulties at school and social isolation.
“My brother doesn’t feel confident to communicate if there is background noise, but I think we can help,” says Musawu, a pc science pupil on the United States International University-Africa in Kenya.
She and her group at the moment are constructing an app known as TAWI to assist folks with the dysfunction talk extra simply. It leverages speech recognition instruments from Azure Cognitive Services and OpenAI Whisper to boost speech, cut back background noise and transcribe speech to textual content in actual time.
Users can join the app to common earphones, making the answer extra inexpensive, accessible and discreet than conventional listening to aids. They may also learn transcribed speech on their telephone.
Focused on inclusivity, the group is working with AI fashions to course of completely different languages, accents and background noise, from crosstalk and air conditioners to wind, rain and rural animals.
“We want to serve people in all kinds of environments and conditions,” whether or not they’re at college, in an workplace or dwelling on a farm, says group member Zakariya Hussein Hassan.
Eupnea
Most tuberculosis (TB) deaths happen in international locations with much less accessible well being care, inflicting delayed testing and therapy. A standard pores and skin check is especially difficult because it includes two visits for an injection and a assessment a number of days later.
Lakshmi Narke and her group hope their app, Eupnea, will encourage folks to see a health care provider earlier by shortly assessing a consumer’s danger for TB.
Users can {photograph} their injection web site with a coin on their arm and Eupnea, powered by Azure Cognitive Services’ imaginative and prescient instruments, calculates danger by measuring the dimensions of the pores and skin’s response with the coin as a reference, the scholars say. Another AI algorithm is designed to research a number of seconds of coughing.
“AI can reduce the cost of making multiple trips to the doctor, who can review the results and save a life and limit exposure to other people,” says Chidroop Iyyhappan, a pc science graduate pupil at University of California, Irvine.
The group additionally needs to assist folks full the lengthy therapy required for TB by a gamified system and a neighborhood that pairs folks for emotional assist with Azure Machine Learning.
The college students grew up in India, which has the world’s highest burden of TB and is the place Narke’s buddy handed away.
“We have lost friends and family to this disease and witnessed its impact on communities,” says Narke, additionally a pc science graduate pupil at UC Irvine. “With AI, we are trying to save lives one breath at a time.”
CS-M Tool
Cardiovascular ailments are the main reason for dying globally, however most are thought of preventable, a problem in low- and middle-income international locations the place well being care and early detection are much less accessible.
A group of highschool college students in Thailand is constructing a screening instrument they are saying might help folks test themselves for potential indicators of coronary heart illness. With a modified stethoscope related to a telephone, the CS-M Tool (quick for Cardiac Self-Monitoring Tool) will be capable to analyze a consumer’s heartbeat to supply danger ranges for cardiovascular ailments, the group says. The college students additionally plan to include conversational AI to reply primary well being questions.