Romanian team wins Microsoft Imagine Cup world final

Three Romanian students from the Bucharest Polytechnic University won the Microsoft Imagine Cup world final on Friday, July 29.

They will get USD 50,000 from Microsoft to develop their idea and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

The Romanian team, which is called ENTy, are working on a high-tech medical device that simplifies the equipment needed to diagnose balance through Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) consultations.

The team is made of Flavia Oprea (center), Iulian Mateșică (left), and Cristian Alexandrescu (right).

Their device has already been used by several doctors in a pilot project. It consists of a series of sensors placed on two braces which are connected to a central unit that measures, stores and analyzes the data, all within a small box. The device is powered by batteries and can be easily worn by patients for longer periods, as opposed to the current devices used to diagnose balance, which are very large.

The data collected can be stored and sent to cloud where they can be accessed by patients or doctors through a dashboard interface that also allows data interpretation. On the longer term, the team aims to encourage the device use to correct posture and balance problems and to expand its use into medicine and sports.

Microsoft Imagine Cup is one of the world's biggest student technology competitions. Some 150 teams from all over the world, including two from Romania, have competed in this year’s international phase of Microsoft Imagine Cup after winning the competition’s national rounds. Only 35 have qualified to the final in Seattle.

The Romanian team ENTy won the competition’s Innovation section. The other two sections were Games and World Citizenship. Each section winner got a USD 50,000 prize. The three winners then competed for the grand prize, a mentoring meeting with Microsoft’s CEO.

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