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Every year Microsoft brings together young people from all over the world to compete in their signature YouthSpark event, ImagineCup. The prize at stake is a chance at $50,000, and one-on-one mentoring with none other than Bill Gates himself. As you can imagine, this is a very big deal.
This year the event took place in Microsoft’s hometown of Seattle, Washington. Attendees were flown in from all over — Australia, Bahrain, Italy, Uganda — you name it, they were there, and they brought their amazing ideas with them. What was particularly amazing was all the young women who participated in the event, and the incredible project they presented.
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(Team ButterFly)
Two girls from Bahrain, Alaa Abdulraheem and her project partner Marwa Buhaila, created ButterFly — a nail polish mixer than can create a one-time application of any nail polish color you can imagine, on the spot. When she was explaining how she came up with the idea for ButterFly, Alaa said she saw her sister struggling to choose a color from almost 130 polishes they had in the house. Nothing was the exact right shade that she wanted, and Alaa knew there had to be a simpler way. So she and her friend Marwa began building a prototype that would not only become ButterFly, but would win third place in the Innovation category at ImagineCup, and bring the girls $5,000 closer to bringing their product to market.
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(Team AfriGal)
Coming up with solutions to difficult problems is the core of what ImagineCup is about, and the World Citizenship category highlights projects that seek to improve the lives of others. One team in particular, AfriGal Tech from Uganda, has created a piece of medical equipment that could significantly improve detection rates of sickle cell in the developing world. mDex, the name of the mobile application (yes, you would use this on your phone!), uses pattern recognition to diagnose the disease. The team is comprised of four young women from Makerere University, and they won the Visual Studio Online Boost category at this year’s ImagineCup.
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(Seven Summits)
One team that was particularly interesting was Seven Summits from India. Inspired by the hardships many women in the developing world face, they created a game called Petite, which highlights 42 life experience a woman faces from birth to adulthood. This game is meant to teach empathy, and be a learning experience for the players. Plus, it was created by two guys, which is pretty cool.
It was great to be surrounded by all of these young people who were using technology to make a difference in the world. When I spoke with Lori Harnick, Microsoft’s General Manager of Citizenship & Public Affairs, she said that she will see YouthSpark initiative touch the lives of over 300 million young people. “Now we are focused on turning opportunities into outcomes,” she told me. “We want to see how technology can transform people’s lives and communities.”
So, who was the winner of the Grand Prize?
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(Team Eyenaemia)
Team Eyenaemia from Australia! They created a mobile app that can detect aenemia when you take a selfie! Ever thought a selfie could change the world? That’s the kind of innovation it takes to win the ImagineCup!