EPIC’s Breedge Participates in Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018 World Finals

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SEATTLE, U.S. ‒ The ‘Breedge’ team of the Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) recently participated in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018 World Finals in Seattle. The Imagine Cup is a global competition designed for the next generation of computer science students. It provides the opportunity for students to apply creativity, passion and knowledge to create applications that shape the future of how people live, work and play.

To qualify for the World Finals in Seattle, Breedge won successive rounds of competition in the Imagine Cup 2018 Armenia National Finals in Yerevan and the Imagine Cup Eastern Europe Regional Finals in Minsk, Belarus. Breedge was selected to participate in the World Finals along with 49 other teams from 33 countries. At the event, all competing teams presented and demoed their tech projects before a panel of judges.  

Breedge introduced a product based on face-recognition technology that would enable companies to analyze their customer base using security cameras and suggest the right recruits based on the average psychetype of the customer. The project incorporated psychology, web product design and artificial intelligence. For the Breedge team, the Seattle event also was an opportunity to gain exposure to industry professionals and to receive invaluable advice from Microsoft experts and from other leaders in the tech community.

“From the first day, when the Breedge team was accepted to EPIC Incubation program, they have been persistent in pursuing their goals and passionate about what they have been doing, and these qualities brought them to the global finals of Imagine Cup in Seattle,” remarked Aram Keryan, Operations Manager at EPIC.

The first-place winner was a team from Canada with its cloud-powered robotic prosthetic hand.  The team received a trophy, $85,000 monetary prize, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. In second- and third-place were teams from Greece and Japan, respectively.

The Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) is a platform for promoting entrepreneurial education, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and startup venture incubation. EPIC provides an ecosystem for the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) emerging entrepreneurs consisting of first-class facilities and collaborative workspace, programs and events, and a network of mentors, advisors and investors. EPIC fosters the understanding and application of entrepreneurship with students and faculty at AUA to craft high-impact multidisciplinary ventures.