At this point, each team had to prepare a demo of their idea with the help of a tech mentor, assigned to them from Microsoft team or Microsoft ecosystem. In this demo, the team showcased how their solution solves an educational issue, what the exact functionalities of that solution are, and which technologies were used to implement it. The final product had to be an Azure based solution, utilizing at least one of the following services: Azure bot framework, Azure Machine Learning and Azure Cognitive services.

Each team had 15 minutes to present their idea and demo online, after which they answered questions from the judges. The judges decided the finalist teams based on a series of factors including: the impact of the idea, how relevant it is in the present context, how practical it is, whether or not it’s an original idea and the complexity of the algorithm used to implement it. The teams were accompanied on the call by their mentors and their professors, who wanted to show their support.

Out of the 25 teams that qualified for stage 2 of the event, 6 teams were approved for the final stage of the competition.