SLIIT wins Microsoft Imagine Cup

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) emerged winners of the Sri Lankan chapter of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009.

The winning team consist with Akila Jayasooriya, Chanakya Jayasinghe, Lakkana Perera and Dunith Dhanushka.

They also participated for the grand finale of the Imagine Cup Global which was held on July 3 to 9 in Cairo, Egypt.

Marking its seventh year of existence, the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 has attracted nearly 300,000 students from over 100 countries in this year's competition. Sri Lanka alone had 800 participants this year.

The theme for this year is "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today".

Team MAHEE participated in the software design category at the global finals. Their invention is called "Medical Chair". Their project 'Minimum Sufficient Equal Healthcare for all' is an approach to improve healthcare in the world uniformly.

It provides a general healthcare solution focusing on total healthcare areas that are underserved. The system evolves around a unique, low cost mobile hardware device and a rich set of applications that ensures a better user experience when obtaining the services of the chair.

When a person sits on the chair it will act like a doctor and spell out ECG, blood pressure etc real time and provide suggestions to the doctor.

This invention provides information on past medical records and data about the patient's medical health history.

The Chairman of SLIIT Prof. Sam Karunaratne said "We are proud of the achievements of our students given the scale of this competition.

Participating in the Imagine Cup opens up a whole new world for students creating vital breakthroughs that could impact the world and their personal development.

Being the premier degree awarding institute in IT, we encourage students to be innovative and creative. My heartiest felicitations go to the winners, their parents and academic staff who supported this worthy cause". The Managing Director of SLIIT, Prof. Lalith Gamage said the Imagine Cup inspires students to use their creativity, to help change the world for the better by discovering new ways to use technology to address some of the world's toughest challenges.

The team MAHEE has shown such commitment, passion and enthusiasm in their endeavor to make our world a better place to live in, aided by their exemplary project.