Team LifeWatch Wins 2015 Microsoft Imagine Cup National Finals

Team LifeWatch has emerged the winning team of the 2015 Microsoft Nigeria Imagine Cup, a student competition which centers on the use of imagination, creativity and technology to solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

A total of seven teams made up of students from various tertiary institutions from across the country competed during a challenging day of presentations held at Idea Hub, Yaba, Lagos.

Team LifeWatch from Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti who emerged this year’s winner presented a project in the World Citizenship category. The project, AsthmaVisor is a phone app,synthesized with an external hardware to provide real-time monitoring of asthmatic patients.

The solution monitors and supervises asthmatic patients’ health status and environmental conditions and gives early warning signals to pre-defined emergency contacts if a threat to the patient’s health exists, alerting them of the situation and the location of the patient.

“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 the time we win the semi-finals. There are positive signals that we will make it to the global finals given the innovative solution we have,” said Raymond Obinaju, team lead for Team Lifewatch.

The team members- Raymond Obinaju, Adeyemo kayode, Ahwin Akporode and Sobola David will go on to compete in the Imagine Cup Africa Semi- Finals.

Team Paradigm’s project aimed at solving MDG’s number 6 came second with Retigram, a handy solution for early detection of diabetes retinopathy, while Team Yurix’s Quemia targeted at early detection of leukemia was third place.

Other competing teams include Team Engines, Team X-Dev, Team Inspire and Team FlairTech.

Addressing the students after the panel of judges had announced the result, Shina Oyetosho, developer experience and evangelism director, 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.

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.