AUK Sweeps Microsoft Imagine Cup and Advances to World Finals

In a historical evening, AUK broke the records of the region and advanced to the Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals for the 3rd year in a row. This year, AUK was the sole champion of the event as its teams dominated by winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize as well as "The People's Choice" award. The cup winner will be representing Kuwait in the worldwide finals in Sydney, Australia in July 2012.

Over the years, AUK has established its competence within the world's most prestigious technology competition that proposes solutions to serve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This year, the AUK team "Code Breakers" won the Software Design Competition with their project "Universal Sign System" (USS). The young AUK computer scientists - Khaled Al-Qahtani, Khaled Al-Jassar, Mohammed Al-Shati, and Abdullah Al-Shaya -came up with a software solution capable of turning sign language into a human voice, bridging the communication gap between the deaf world and the society that encompasses them. Their USS is a Kinect-based application that recognizes sign language and synthesizes them into a human voice in different languages, proposing a solution to a worldwide healthcare challenge. In addition to winning the Software Design competition, the "Code Breakers" also won the Mobile Development Award on their groundbreaking USS.

In second place, came the "Home Rehabilitation System" project proposed by team "1337". The team which is composed of AUK Senior students Khaled Al- Hazeem, Mubarak Al- Enezi, and Dalaa W. Al- Qahtani, created an application that allows paralysis patients to do guided physiotherapy remotely in the comfort of their homes. The system creates a link between the patient and the medical professional, who in turn can monitor the progress of each patient remotely.

The third place winner "Team GG", composed of AUK Senior students Ali Taqi, Talal Alyaseen, Omar Elkhatib, and Thamer Al-Mayyan, proposed an interactive learning platform "KINED" that enables school children to learn the different school subjects using Microsoft's Kinect motion activate system. Their idea was based on the kinesthetic learning theory which states that children learn better while engaging in physical activity. The project was seen as unique among other projects as it developed an application programming interface (API) capable of limitless expansion according to the market needs. Beside winning the 3rd place, "Team GG" also won "The People's Choice" award of the competition.

This year, the audience was also allowed to vote for the teams through twitter. The winners were awarded trophies, certificates, and gifts sponsored by Zain Telecom, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS), and Burgan Bank.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Amir Zeid, Program Lead of Computer Science & Information Systems (CSIS), AUK teams have been gaining local and regional titles in the Annual Imagine Cup Competition since 2009, winning 1st Place Mobile regional award in 2009; 1st Place Software Design regional award in 2010, 1st Place Software Design local award in 2011, and 2nd Place Software Design regional award in 2011. In addition, two AUK teams have qualified to the World Finals in Poland 2010 and New York 2011.

Dr. Zeid commented on this year's victory saying, "All four AUK teams have put tremendous effort and sleepless nights to prepare for this moment. Their achievement as cup winners is very remarkable. But, the backstage scene I experienced with them is even more impressive. Those teams have developed the power to control stressful situations and work collaboratively to solve technical problems within seconds. In the world of technology, this is a lifesaving skill." He added that "The challenge is not over yet, we have months of preparations ahead for Sydney. The world finals will be a great learning experience and an opportunity to convey that AUK was not there for the past two years by coincidence."

The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition. With the 2012 theme Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems, the competition encourages students to use their imagination to create technology solutions that addresses real-world problems. Since 2003, over 1.4 million students have participated in the Imagine Cup.

Released by the Office of Public Affairs on the 17th April 2012