Team Humane Wins in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Finals

 Team Humane, which represented the Obafemi Awolowo University, at this year’s edition of Microsoft Nigeria Imagine Cup competition, has emerged winner. The competition is in its ninth year in Nigeria.

Microsoft Imagine Cup is the premier student technology program and competition, and a cornerstone of the Microsoft YouthSpark initiative. It provides an opportunity for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic backgrounds to collaborate, develop a technology application, create a business plan and gain a keen understanding of what is needed to bring a concept to market.

According to the organisers of the initiative, this year, the event was held at the Microsoft Office in Victoria Island, Lagos, and had eleven participating teams drawn from various tertiary institutions within the country. The winning team, Team Humane, which comprised of Otaru Babatunde, Oyatope Blessing, Shoaga Victor, and Ayodele Obasegun, competed in the World Citizenship Category.

Their solution, Humane is a solution for the visually impaired, which enables them to interact and navigate freely on their mobile phones. The solution comes with an accompanying hardware known as the Humane handle, which interacts with apps installed on a device using Bluetooth. A visually impaired person would be able to navigate through various apps installed on his/her mobile phone using the handle and an integrated voice navigation system.

According to the team lead, Ayodele Obasegun, the team was concerned about solving a major challenge leveraging technology hence, it embarked on the project. He explained: “We have been developing solutions for various organisations, and we felt a need to impact our community and the world as a whole, hereafter this solution for the visually impaired. It was initially targeted at gaming for the visually impaired, but later we felt we can do more than gaming.”

Also speaking at the National finals, Director, Developer Evangelism, Microsoft Nigeria, Shina Oyetosho explained that, “Microsoft is committed in empowering students to become the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and developers, the competition inspires student developers around the world to create innovative solutions that change the way we live, work and play while also growing the skills they need to pursue a future in technology