Microsoft Build--at the opening keynote by CEO and Chairman, Satya Nadella, announced the final judging for the 2022 Imagine Cup global winner. After the judging, V Bionic took top honours today, May 24. Their platform solution, ExoHeal, combines a therapeutic exoskeleton hand device with sensors, and extensive intuitive app -- that helps patients with hand paralysis to experience a faster, more comfortable, inexpensive, three stage rehabilitation process to improve patients physical and mental health. The V BIONIC team is achieving international recognition through competitions and award programs including: Global Finalists in the Google Science Fair and Social Innovation Award winners at the Diamond Challenge, and today as World Champions of Imagine Cup as key gems in their crown towards success. Their hard work and passion is founded on the inspiration to do more for humanity and by implementing tech-for-good.

Prosthetic limbs are getting better every year, but the strength and precision they gain doesn't always translate to easier or more effective use, as amputees have only a basic level of control over them. One promising avenue being investigated by Swiss researchers is having an AI take over where manual control leaves off. To visualize the problem, imagine a person with their arm amputated above the elbow controlling a smart prosthetic limb. With sensors placed on their remaining muscles and other signals, they may fairly easily be able to lift their arm and direct it to a position where they can grab an object on a table. The many muscles and tendons that would have controlled the fingers are gone, and with them the ability to sense exactly how the user wants to flex or extend their artificial digits.

A pair of Canadian students making a simple, inexpensive prosthetic arm have taken home the grand prize at Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a global startup competition the company holds yearly. SmartArm will receive $85,000, a mentoring session with CEO Satya Nadella, and some other Microsoft goodies. But they were far from the only worthy team from the dozens that came to Redmond to compete. The Imagine Cup is an event I personally look forward to, because it consists entirely of smart young students, usually engineers and designers themselves (not yet "serial entrepreneurs") and often aiming to solve real-world problems. In the semi-finals I attended, I saw a pair of young women from Pakistan looking to reduce stillbirth rates with a new pregnancy monitor, an automated eye-checking device that can be deployed anywhere and used by anyone, and an autonomous monitor for water tanks in drought-stricken areas.

An application that can, at the touch of a finger, draw on facial recognition technology to help a blind person "see" who or what is directly in front of him. A device that can gauge a person's risk of depression just by detecting his facial movements and tone of voice. A decade ago, such inventions that tap advanced systems like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning would have been impossible feats for most tertiary students. But the rise of cloud computing systems and mixed-reality products has powered the ability of students to add such capabilities to their applications, more than 50 of which were on show at the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle, Washington, two weeks ago. Since 2003, technology giant Microsoft has organised the Imagine Cup, which brings together aspiring developers, entrepreneurs and technologists from all academic backgrounds. The contest spurs them to develop new technology applications, create a business plan and understand what is needed to bring a concept to market.