Canadian innovators smartARM win big at Microsoft's 2018 Imagine Cup

Microsoft recently hosted the 2018 Imagine Cup finals in Seattle, the competition that inspired 40,000 students from over 190 countries to innovate for a chance to compete on a global stage.

This year, Canada triumphed after taking the Gold at the Canadian finals in May, team smartARM from Toronto reigned supreme at the worldwide finals as well! As the winners of this year’s program, the team will receive $85,000 USD in cash, $50,000 USD in Azure grants and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Their winning project is a 3D-printed robotic prosthetic arm that uses computer vision through a palm-embedded camera to calculate the appropriate grip for an object. Using machine learning, the more the device is used, the more accurate it becomes. You can read more about the finals here.