INDIA, 03 MARCH 2020 –Team Blume from India has emerged as the runner up at this year’s Imagine Cup Asia finals following an intense finale against nine other teams from across the region.  Team Blume, together with fellow runner up teams, Tulibot from Indonesia and Zest from Singapore, will receive USD 2,500 each for their projects. Team Blume developed an Android application that allows patients to scan the RFID tag on prescription medication to ensure its authenticity and allergen-compatibility with the patient.

The Team Blume-India members are from the Vellore Institute of Technology and the Ramaiah Institute of Technology and they met through college connections. They have participated in hackathons, worked on common projects, and have complementary skills which make them a well-rounded team. The team includes VR Karthik, an Android Developer with a knack for blockchain development; Hemant Joshi, a backend programmer whose core skills are website and blockchain development; and Hemant H Kumar, an electronics enthusiast with a passion for UI/UX Design, Video Making, and Marketing.

“Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition not only challenges students to utilize technology creatively to make a difference in the world, but also provides the opportunity to connect, engage, and learn from a community of like-minded young innovators. We’re glad to see student teams from across Asia showcase their unique solutions that have the potential to create lasting impact. We hope that through this competition, students are inspired to pursue their passion to develop, ideate, and solve global problems through the power of technology,” said Jennifer Ritzinger, General Manager, Audience Evangelism, Microsoft.  

The competition is designed to inspire students to use their imagination and passion for technology to create innovative solutions that tackle some of the world’s biggest social, environmental, and health challenges

In a first for the annual competition, this year's Imagine Cup Asia Finals was held via Microsoft Teams and saw the 10 finalists from seven countries virtually present their inventions to secure a place in the World Championships in May. The 10 finalist student teams - from Japan, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, India, China and Hong Kong - were selected from various rounds of the competition online or through in-person National Final events organized by Microsoft subsidiaries in countries across the Asia region. 

The competition’s online judging panel included executives from Microsoft and industry leader, who evaluated the teams on innovation, and whether each solution presented was comprehensive and marketable. The judges were: 

·  Craig Dixon, Co-Founder, Entrepreneur in Residence and Program Director, Acceleration Asia  

· Leanne Robers, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, She Loves Tech 

· Jennifer Ritzinger, General Manager, Audience Evangelism, Microsoft 

· Vanessa Ching, Founder – XR Alliance, Brand Engineer – GeoWorks 

· Andrea Della Mattea, President, Asia Pacific, Microsoft 

Held annually since 2003, the Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition, affectionately known by participants as the “Olympics of student technology competitions”. This year’s Imagine Cup encouraged participants to “Dream it. Build it. Live it” in order to create applications that shape how individuals live, work and play and through their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology. For more information about Imagine Cup, please visit https://www.imaginecup.com/.