Anti-malaria app takes out Microsoft Imagine Cup

Software designed to tackle the disease wins student development contest

An application developed by Auckland University students that aims to help in the battle against malaria has won the New Zealand Microsoft Imagine Cup.

The application, developed by a group of students, is one of two from the university that aim to control the disease.

Team OneBuzz's Vinny Lohan describes says of the project: "Our solution is to use a collaboration platform involving current information, current partners and current actions in a bid to help eradicate malaria from the surface of this planet. By having a system which updates the concerned parties within days rather than months can be used to greater effect to help dispatch medical aid to the concerned regions. We can now react faster to a potential outbreak and stop it from spreading by concentrating aid efforts."

The Imagine Cup is a competition held annually, in which students from around the world develop technologies, using Microsoft software, to help solve global problems.

Team OneBuzz will now compete in an online qualifying round with the winning teams around the world for a chance to represent New Zealand at the world wide finals in New York in July .

Second place in the NZ contest went to Team MCG, also from Auckland University, with The Sentinel project, another anti-malaria application, a laser beam system for killing mosquitoes.

Third place went to Team SkyEye, also from Auckland University, for the SkyEye project, designed to prevent car accidents and improve road safety globally.

Fourth place went to Team Food from Lincoln University, for the Where is my food? Project, a database of food expiry dates for publishing to websites and local notice boards to inform people in need where to go for free food.

Winners Team OneBuzz are the same group of students that won last year’s local Imagine Cup, for an application designed to aid the global One Laptop Per Child project.