Team Hollo from Hong Kong wins 2020 Imagine Cup World Championship

The winning team will receive USD100,000, a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and USD50,000 in Azure grants

 

SINGAPORE
– Media OutReach – 20 May 2020 – Microsoft today announced
Team Hollo from Hong Kong as the World Champion for the 2020 Imagine Cup who
won the grand prize for their mental health companion web app leveraging Azure
analytics and AI services to advance youth therapy practices. This is the first
time in the 18-year history of the competition that a team from Hong Kong has
won the top prize. Runner-up teams include Team Syrinx from Japan and Team
Tremor Vision from the United States. Team Syrinx created a neck wearable EL
(Electrolarynx) that restores the ability to speak for people who have lost
their voices and Team Tremor Vision developed a web-based tool that enables
physicians to detect early-onset Parkinson’s and quantitatively track patient
progress.

Held at the Microsoft Build digital event,  Team Hollo won USD100,000, a mentoring
session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and USD50,000 in Azure grants. Hollo is a
digital mental health companion and therapist, used to enhance practices by
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and therapists through an AI chatbot. It
leverages Big Data and AI to introduce youth to therapy and counseling
practices through online gamified journaling and mindfulness activities. Data
from the AI chatbots and journaling can then be collected to generate
actionable findings. This scalable model aims to cut the heavy cost of mental
health care for youth to make support more accessible and supplements existing
self-help techniques and therapy practices.

 

“Mental
health is a really significant problem faced by society around the world,
affecting so many especially in 2020. We’re so excited to win the Imagine Cup
World Championship because it will allow us to continue working on this
innovative mental health platform and technology. Our journey has definitely
reaffirmed our belief that going forward, this is something viable and has the
potential to save lives,” said Team Hollo.

 

The
18^th annual Imagine Cup competition saw thousands of students across
the world submitting innovations to impact their communities, both locally and
globally. This year’s innovative and inclusive solutions submitted by teams tackle
some of the world’s biggest challenges in healthcare, agriculture, media, and
more. 

 

“We’re
always so impressed and humbled to see the projects these young developers have
created, this year is no different! Their innovations aim to address issues in
their communities and are focused on bringing the world together. With the
competition moving into a virtual format for the very first time, it was inspiring
to see how the teams came together to pitch their projects to the judges at
Microsoft Build’s inaugural digital event,” said Jennifer Ritzinger, General Manager,
Audience Evangelism, Microsoft.

 

Six finalist teams from Asia, EMEA and
the Americas were selected to move forward to the World Championship, after
advancing through hackathons, and online semifinals by presenting their
innovations via Teams at virtual regional event in their respective regions.

 

The
top three teams — Team Hollo, Team Syrinx and Team Tremor Vision – gave an
in-depth presentation of their solutions, which were assessed for their
diversity, originality, and innovative design.

 

This
year’s online judging panel consisted of Microsoft executives and innovation
experts with technology, diversity, and social change-centered experiences:

• Dwana Franklin-Davis, CEO of Reboot Representation, a tech innovator,
  and leader who has worked to empower underrepresented groups in technology
• The CyberCode Twins, America and Penelope Lopez, young innovators who
  have participated in tech competitions across the world and hope to introduce
  other students to opportunities in the field
• Brad Smith, President, Microsoft Corp, who leads work on a
  wide range of issues involving the intersection of technology and society,
  including ethics and AI, human rights, and environmental sustainability.

Watch the show to experience the moment when Team Hollo is crowned
champion! Registration for the 2021 competition is also now open for students
and young developers to sign up today! For more information on the competition and
the participating teams, please visit the Microsoft blog.

 

About Imagine Cup

Held annually since 2003, the Microsoft Imagine Cup is
the world’s premier student technology competition, affectionately known by
participants as the “Olympics of student technology competitions”. This year’s
Imagine Cup encouraged participants to “Dream it. Build it. Live it” in order
to create applications that shape how individuals live, work and play and
through their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology. For more
information about Imagine Cup, please visit https://www.imaginecup.com/.

About Microsoft

Microsoft
(Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an
intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every
person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.