Announcing the 2019 AI for Good Idea Challenge winners

Thanks to developers, the world runs on software!

Developers have played a strong role in many of the massive transformations and technology shifts of the past few decades. And now that AI is redefining how software is created with the capability to learn through data and experiences and to perceive the world around us through vision, speech and understanding, we’re excited to see a whole new level of transformation and innovation coming to the forefront. We love learning from and showcasing the cool developers behind these innovations.

To that end, in 2018 Microsoft created the initial AI Idea Challenge to explore how developers were applying AI in meaningful and fascinating ways. As we explored the projects that poured in, it was clear that developers were incredibly inspired by the ability to use AI to positively impact society. This desire is directly aligned with our vision to use AI to empower people to take on some of society’s toughest issues. Voilá, a new developer challenge called the AI for Good Idea Challenge was born!

This challenge is focused on using developer creativity and skills specifically around AI for Good scenarios. Great winning projects from our first AI Idea Challenge, like Angel Eyes and Clean Water AI, helped to inspire more developers than ever to get involved and think up new ways to leverage Microsoft AI to tackle societal issues. I have been amazed by the sheer numbers and pure creativity of the ideas from developers across the globe. Ready to be inspired? Take a look at the highlight video to get an idea of the breadth of ideas that came in.

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To help us select winners of the AI for Good Idea Challenge, we brought together a team of judges to evaluate each entry against three criteria: originality of impact, complexity to implement and solution feasibility. With such passion and creativity represented in work of these talented developers, it was very hard to pick the winners. My deepest gratitude goes out to all who entered. Thank you!

And now, I’m thrilled to share the winners of the AI for Good Idea Challenge:

First place: CardioVision, by Bohdan Petryshak and his student team from Ukrainian Catholic University, is a solution that can help patients at risk of coronary artery disease live a better life. This AI-guided web application will assist doctors to localize and classify the stenosis score on the CT scans and MPR images of the coronary artery. By detecting artery defects and disease up to three times faster, patients are equipped for better heart attack prevention.

Second place: LeafAI, by Maanasa Mendu, identifies 38 classes of biotic plant disease from a basic smartphone picture – with an astounding 90% accuracy rate. The homogeneity of the current agriculture system combined with the effects of climate change has led to a growing threat of plant disease, contributing to malnutrition, which affects 700,000 people around the world. LeafAI’s technology can help identify plant diseases and provide information about treatment, taking us one step closer to better economic and food security.

Third place: OrganSecure, by Pratik Mohapatra, is a sophisticated set of machine learning algorithms that can quickly match organ donors and provide real-time updates with people in need of a transplant. Using health parameters such as blood group and antigen type, it becomes possible to predict the match of an organ and estimate the rank and time required for an awaiting recipient. Not only would this help people waiting for organs, but it would also make the host-donor matching process more transparent.

You can learn more about the winning projects here.

We were incredibly fortunate to have four stellar judges for our first AI for Good Idea Challenge who evaluated the projects and had the tough job of selecting the winners. Thank you to our judges: Stephen Ibaraki, Wendy Chisholm, Alma Cardena and David Carmona.

CONGRATULATIONS to each of our winners! Thank you to all the developers who took the time to share and submit their great ideas for the challenge. We can’t wait to do it again!

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