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A FANTASTIC foursome of young tech whizzes from AMA International University and the University of Bahrain has been named the winners of Bahrain’s national round of Imagine Cup 2014.
Team Future Torch, in the Worldwide Citizenship category, alongside Team Butterfly, in the Innovation category, will represent Bahrain in the Pan Arab Finals taking place in Doha, Qatar, next month.
The winning projects were announced from five short-listed teams who presented their projects to a judging panel of industry experts as well as a live audience.
Team Future Torch included Mohammed Babbili, Dima Mohammad Darraj and Mohammed Mahmoud. Their project, The Intelligent Jacket for the Blind Innovation (JACKI,) is a solution that aims to help solve blind people’s daily problems.
JACKI, when connected to Windows Phone and Cloud, will help blind people achieve their daily tasks and reduce their challenges.
“We are so happy to have participated in Imagine Cup competition and very proud to have won the Bahrain title,” the team said in a statement.
“Creating an application to help solve a problem that society faces is a great honour and a dream that the Imagine Cup Bahrain team allowed us to realise.”
In the ‘Innovation’ category, Team Butterfly from the University of Bahrain won the first prize. Alaa Mohammed Abdulraheem, the only member in this team, presented a Nail Polish Mixer project, a mobile and PC application designed to control the electronic machine ‘Nail Polish mixer machine’ by users. It also allows them to share photos, discussions and everything about fashion.
“I am thrilled to have captured the first prize in the Innovation category of Imagine Cup 2014 Bahrain,” she said. “Participating in this global competition opened lots of windows of opportunities for me to learn new skills, venture into the latest technology innovations in order to come up with a unique application that allowed me to enjoy a competitive advantage over the other teams.”
Representing Microsoft in this event, Hamad Al Saei, public sector and education manager for Bahrain congratulated the two winners and wished them the best of luck in the Pan Arab finals.
He also applauded the efforts of all the participants and said: “This year’s competition witnessed a high number of participation and a new record number of submitted projects, some of which showed a great level of innovation and creativity. Choosing the winners was such a difficult task for the judging panel We wish both teams all the luck in their journey and hope we see one of them compete at the Worldwide Finals in Seattle, US, in July.”
Tamkeen’s senior marketing communications manager Hala Sulaiman said: “The eGovernment Authority is keen to participate in technology events that aim at developing the know-how’s amongst youth, as well as organise various contests that primarily target this segment.”
Bahrain Development Bank’s assistant vice-president, head of business advisory, Areije AlShakar cheered the winners and acknowledged the efforts of all contestants throughout the last few months.
The judging panel consisted of representatives from Imagine Cup local partners; it included Hamad Al Saei, public sector and education manager, Microsoft Bahrain, Hala Suleiman, eGovernment Authority (eGA) strategy management and IT process reengineering director, Nezar Maroof Omar, along with Areije AlShakar.
