Imagine Cup challenges student developers to innovate for the future, and to bring forward their most original ideas to the global stage for the opportunity to win prizes, Azure grants, and a one-on-one mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

This week, 49 student teams from across the world have brought their best technological solutions to Microsoft headquarters for the 2018 Imagine Cup World Finals.

Out of all these amazing teams, 18 semifinalists have been narrowed down. Judges selected 15 teams to move forward from the Tech Showcase, and three additional teams were saved in the Wildcard round, selected by their peers to advance. These teams will present their projects in front of a panel of judges for the chance at a spot in the Championship round, July 25.

One U of T team member has advanced to the semi-finals:

smartARM
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
University of Toronto

Hamayal Choudhry is a second year Mechatronics Engineering Student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Samin Khan is a third year Computer Science student at U of T.

Using Microsoft Azure's Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Cloud Storage, they created a robotic hand that uses a camera embedded in the palm to recognize objects and calculate the most appropriate grip for the object. Using Machine Learning, the more the model is used the more it improves. Since all data is stored on the cloud, the trained model stays with you even when you switch devices.

With files from the MSDN blog