April 24, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A team of three University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) students has been named a U.S. finalist in the seventh annual Microsoft-sponsored Imagine Cup competition. The team, from the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, is one of just 15 U.S. finalists in the competition's software design challenge. The U.S. finalists will be judged May 2-5 in Cambridge, Mass.
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| Ritu Arora. Download image. |
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| Zekai Demirezen. Download image. |
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| Yu Sun. Download image. |
The PDADocter [cq], a team-designed and written software, is the linchpin of the team's Imagine Cup proposal. The software is a graphical medical expert system that would run on handheld PDA devices and provide patient diagnosis and treatment information. Arora said the PDADocter's graphical interface, which utilizes illustrations of the human body, is crucial because most locally trained health care workers in developing countries have only a basic knowledge of reading and writing.
"The graphics make it convenient and easy because health care workers can click on illustrations to enter a patient's condition into the PDADocter rather than wasting valuable time searching for and typing in the correct words or vocabulary," Arora said.
"Once patient symptoms are entered into the PDADocter, the device will provide real-time diagnosis and treatment information based on a patient's specific needs."
Under the team AuroraBorealis proposal, PDADocter devices and ambulances would be provided to health care workers in developing countries, allowing them to travel to rural communities with traditionally poor access to health care and use the technology to provide medical assistance to expectant mothers and children. PDADocter also would be used to collect and store patient data to monitor the progress and effectiveness of various regional health care programs.
"We're very impressed with the work of the University of Alabama at Birmingham student team. Their innovative software application demonstrates the power of technology in solving real-world problems facing developing countries," said Dan Waters, Microsoft academic developer evangelist. "The students' creativity is inspiring for future leaders around the world."
The team has developed a working prototype of the PDADocter for the Imagine Cup competition, as well as a detailed business plan that includes cost analysis, feasibility studies and commercial marketing strategies.
About UAB
The UAB Department of Computer and Information Science is located within the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Its undergraduate program provides a bachelor of science degree with the opportunity to minor in another discipline as well as co-op programs with local industry. CIS also offers programs of study leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, as well as an interdisciplinary bioinformatics program. Find more at www.cis.uab.edu.
MORE ON THE MICROSOFT IMAGINE CUP
More than 140 teams from 100 universities entered the U.S. region competition of the 2009 Microsoft Imagine Cup. Worldwide, 200,000 students from 100 countries entered the cup challenge. Three U.S. software design challenge champions selected from the 15 finalists will take on other global finals winners in Cairo, Egypt, later in 2009. Previous world finals have been held in Paris, Delhi and Barcelona, among other cities.
The Imagine Cup was developed by Microsoft in 2003 to encourage young programmers, artist and technologists across the country to rise to the challenge of creating technology which helps solve the toughest problems facing the world, according to a statement on the competition's Web site.