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NUST Team Declared Winner of HEC-Microsoft Imagine Cup 2019

A team from National Univeristy of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has been declared the winner of the Imagine Cup 2019 held in collaboration with Microsoft and Higher Education Commission.

The winning team’s “EKKO-Wave Therapeutic Device” project was declared the winner in the finals and will now head to Amsterdam for the World Regional Finals. The intrnationla finals where teams from all around the world would be competing would be held in Seattle. Of 48 competing teams, the winning project from NUST, EKKO-A Wave, proposes solution for cognitive rehabilitation using vibrational waves.

Sukkur Institute of Business Administration’s team remained the runner-up with their project “CreativeCrew”, while team “City Care” from City University, Peshawar was the second runner-up team.

Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood was the chief guest at the awards ceremony, which was also attended by HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri, HEC Executive Director Lt Gen (R) Muhammad Asghar, Microsoft Country Manager Abid Zaidi, several vice chancellors and a large number of students from various universities.

Appreciating the competition participants, Shafqat Mahmood said they had accomplished a ‘breathtaking work’. He hoped that many of the innovative projects would go into commercial application. “Pakistani students have a lot of talent and an environment is being created to utilise their talent to the fullest,” he observed.

Mahmood pointed out that quality of education and relevance of research to the national requirements were the real challenges facing Pakistan, adding that HEC was playing a key role effectively. He observed that competitions like Imagine Cup would improve problem-solving skills of our students.

Microsoft’s Zaidi said the company was pursuing the mission of empowering every individual on this planet to reshape their work by revolutionising information technology. “Pakistan is blessed with youth bulge, so all we need is to learn tangible skills and turn the 4th Industrial Revolution into an opportunity for Pakistan.”

Pakistan ranked as the top country in the Middle East and Africa cluster in terms of project submissions in the Imagine Cup. Besides, another distinction of this year’s competition was that the participants included 25 per cent female students.

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