BANGKOK, April 29, 2015 – Today, tech savvy Thai university students with an innovative mobile solution to help fish farmers monitor key data have won this year’s Students with Solutions prize awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in the World Citizen Competition of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Thailand.

The 100,000 baht ($3,125) prize went to a team of students drawn from several universities --Chulalongkorn University, Sripatum University, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and Mahanakorn University of Technology -- for their Len Nam (“play with water”) mobile app to provide fish farmers with reliable real time data and alerts related to water quality. This app allows farmers to improve management of their farms, and to optimize productivity. The app, which connects to a hardware device that contains sensors, is a more cost-effective and efficient solution than traditional means of monitoring water quality.

USAID partnered with Microsoft on the Imagine Cup, a leading student technology competition.

“It is exciting to see how through the Imagine Cup students develop innovative technology solutions to help address critical development issues,” said U.S. Embassy Chargé d’affaires W. Patrick Murphy, who along with Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Kristina Kvien attended the final Imagine Cup event.  “The Thai Students with Solutions winners are young social entrepreneurs who are passionate about fighting poverty and helping people improve their livelihoods. We hope they will continue to build on this success in Thailand and the region, as well as on the connections and partnerships they have built through the Imagine Cup.”

The World Citizenship category of the Imagine Cup challenges students to design software products for social good. Under a partnership with Microsoft in Thailand, USAID identified eight priority themes:  Clean and Renewable Energy, Forests and Sustainable Land Use, Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation, Biodiversity, Environmentally-Responsible Development, Supporting Survivors of Trafficking in Persons, Aquaculture and Fisheries, and Supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

World Citizenship Finalists who applied under one of these themes received mentoring from USAID staff and USAID implementing partners and were eligible for the Students with Solutions prize. Eight of nine World Citizenship finalist teams received mentoring from USAID under this partnership.

The overall winner of the World Citizenship Contest, Team Visionear (King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi), developed a wearable device that features a camera and connection to the cloud to help the visually impaired distinguish products, such as similarly shaped packaged food in the supermarket.

Team Lens, the USAID special prize winner, was also the first runner up in Thailand for the Len Nam app. The second runner up was Team JAMZ (Silpakorn University, Burapha University, Kasetsart University, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi) for PraYard, which helps users better manage household energy consumption by providing infographics and other information on electrical usage and controlling switches of appliances.

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usaidasia/sets/72157651830980679/