Two Chicago teams reach finals of Microsoft's ImagineCup
A pair of Chicago startups are finalists in next week's ImagineCup software competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp.
Team Project SAM,a group led by University of Chicago students, developed a mobile app for overseas health clinics to monitor inventory and provide automatic updates to suppliers. The students — Cindy Sui, Victor Kung, Hope Bretscher and Daniel Yu — came up with the idea while studying in Peru.
The other finalist is JiveHealth, a team of students from Northwestern University and Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, which developed a mobile game to educate kids about healthy food choices. It won $10,000 at the Building a Healthier Future Summit over spring break in Washington. The team includes Nathan Wangler and Hailey Schmidt of Tribeca and Northwestern University student Dennis Ai. Their smartphone game, Jungo, is due out this summer.
They were among 15 teams that Microsoft flew out to Silicon Valley in early March to tour startups and meet mentors. The winner of the U.S. competition heads to St. Petersburg, Russia, in July for the world championship. Microsoft launched the competition 11 years ago as a way to spot talent and new ideas in technology. The winner receives $50,000, and the runner-up gets $10,000.
