Some students from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, will be flying Nigeria’s flag at the finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup. They will be joining representatives of other countries to slug it out for a prize of $50,000 and a chance to meet Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella.
The students, who emerged from the latest stage featuring over 150 teams from various national finals, impressed a panel made up of Microsoft staff and technology experts with their presentation- a device designed to help visually impaired people use the apps on their phones with relative ease.
Team Humane, as they are called, demonstrated how their smartphone navigation device works at the Microsoft office in Lagos just after they had been announced as national winners. The device uses a “Humane handle” which interacts with apps on the device via Bluetooth.
Microsoft says that the Imagine Cup offers students who are passionate about technology and entrepreneurship the opportunity to come up with technology-driven solutions which could also be profitable. The ability to find the link between needs, means and market value in the interaction of technology and the world is perhaps what the competition seeks to reward.
Team Humane will square off against teams from the USA, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and thirty other countries in the finals of the Imagine Cup, which takes place in Seattle, USA, from July 26 to 29, 2016.