The GIX Innovation Competition was created in 2016 to spur solutions to global challenges. GIX, the Global Innovation Exchange is a global partnership between major research universities and innovative corporations to develop leaders in innovation. The first two academic partners are Tsinghua University in China and the University of Washington, with early support from Microsoft.
The theme for this year’s competition is “Connected Devices” which includes areas such as IoT, wearable devices, intelligent hardware, virtual and augmented reality, ubiquitous computing, intelligent sensors and natural interactions. The competition is adding a new FinTech track this year focused on fraud prevention and cybersecurity.
Full-time university students or innovators who have graduated within the past five years may submit an application to participate. Teams made up of three to five members should have submitted an application here by May 20, 2018. From this pool, judges will select 120 teams. On July 12, the semi-final round will select the top 20 teams to move on to the next round of the competition.
The team’s project should not have been commercially registered before March 28th, 2018. The team must also be able to travel to Beijing, for the final competition if it reaches the final round. In the final round, the prototypes of the products (functional hardware) must be presented.
In its newest track, the competition aims to tackle the challenge of identity fraud by applying cutting-edge technology, and utilizing advanced scientific knowledge.
• Use cases include but are not limited to loan application, individual or enterprise credit rating, college application, pre-employment background check.
• Final output can take the form of software systems, mobile applications, intelligent hardware, sensors etc.
• Relevant technologies include block chain, machine learning, natural language understanding (NLU), speech recognition, computer vision, knowledge map, intelligent question-answer system (IQAS), emotion analysis, micro expression analysis, human-computer interaction, biosensor etc.
The first GIX Innovation Competition was successfully held in Beijing in 2016. It attracted hundreds of teams and contestants. The winning projects provided insights into solutions addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges such as air pollution, navigation difficulty of the blind, and renewable energy.
The second GIX Innovation Competition was held in Seattle in 2017. It had three hundred entries from China, the United States, Britain, France, Australia and other countries. This year’s competition featured Mentor Program which projects were polished. It also joined hands with Meituan-Dianping with a new Deliver Robot track.