Prague/Washington, July 27 (CTK) – A team of students from the Czech Technical University (CVUT) in Prague won the Imagine Cup prestigious international contest held by the Microsoft company with their project helping children with diabetes, the organiser announced today.
A team from the Czech Republic has won Imagine Cup for the first time, the CVUT said.
The Czechs beat 54 teams from various countries in the final round in Redmond, the United States, and won the main award that carried $250,000.
Imagine Cup is a scientific competition that is to motivate young people to seek creative solutions to current problems with the aid of modern technology and team work.
Since its establishment 15 years ago, the competition has inspired more than two million students from all over the world.
The aim of the X.GLU project of Czech students Marek Novak, Tomas Pikous and Barbara Suchanova is to help diabetic patients keep their illness in control.
The team has developed a new glucometer, a medical device measuring the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood, which is of the same size as a payment card and connected with a smart phone.
The project is primarily focused on small children who might have problems with the discipline that the diabetes treatment requires.
Children are motivated to follow the strict regime by game elements and rewards for their regular glucose measurements directly in the application.
Besides, the parents can find out where their child was during the latest measurement in the case of a hyper- or hypoglycemic shock.
At present, some 415 million people suffer from diabetes in the world and their number is estimated to rise to 642 million by 2040. More than 850,000 people were treated with diabetes in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.5 million in 2015.
The patients must follow a strict regime and check their glucose level in the blood regularly the whole life.
