Singularity University just concluded their very first APAC Global Impact Challenge (GIC), and two Taiwanese startups have emerged as winners.

The challenge aimed to discover moonshot innovations and startups that positively impact the lives of people living in the Asia Pacific, specifically with an ability to scale and impact a billion of people in a decade.

Participants were tasked with developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to address global issues posing a threat to sustainability. AI solutions could tackle issues ranging from energy, environment, food, water, disaster resilience, governance, and health, among other things.

One of its Taiwanese winners is a startup named Vibrasee, which uses deep learning to determine the early onset of Parkinson’s disease. The other is called WeavAir, whose predictive analytics solutions aims to improve air quality.

A Chance to Develop Their Business in Silicon Valley

Vibrasee and WeavAir, as winners of the GIC, will receive a seat in the SU Ventures Incubator Program which will be held from September 3 to November 9, 2018. Most notably, the programme will bring participants to Silicon Valley where they will get to join a 10-week accelerated course at Singularity University.

Besides its two champions, GIC also gave out two other awards. The first award granted is the TIEC Special Award, where the selected team will be sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology to fly over and develop their businesses in Silicon Valley.

The sole winner of this award is AetherAI, which provides AI-powered image analysis tools for healthcare professionals.

Meanwhile the TTA Special Award recipients will be granted access to TTA’s connection platform as well as other TTA resources. The recipients are BeamandGo, FaceHeart, RehaPal, and RumaRocket.

Melissa Gonzales, program manager of SingularityU GIC observed:

“We are truly amazed by the diversity and quality of the participants in SingularityU APAC GIC.”

“It’s great to see how regional joint efforts are bringing top minds together to solve significant issues using advanced technology.”

Dr. Yu-Chin Hsu, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan said:

“The Ministry and TTA is willing to support talents and entrepreneurs from all over the world to make AI-focused, moonshot innovation ideas come true.”

Award Recipients and What They Do

Recipients of the SU Ventures Incubator Program Pass:

WeavAir’s predictive analytics solutions help to improve air quality.

Recipients of the SU Ventures Incubator Program Pass:

Vibrasee (TW)

Vibrasee uses deep learning to determine early onset of Parkinson’s disease,

TIEC Special Award Winner:

AetherAI provides AI-powered image analysis tools for healthcare professionals.

TTA Special Award Winner:

BeamandGo (PH)

BeamandGo enables Overseas Filipino Workers to send gift vouchers back home instead of cash.

TTA Special Award Winner:

FaceHeart is the developer of eBus, which tracks if bus drivers are falling asleep.

TTA Special Award Winner:

RehaPal’s humanoid rehabilitation robot, Rebecca, runs AI-powered training and automated exercises.

TTA Special Award Winner:

Rumarocket enables data-based decision-making for the human resource sector.

Featured Image via SingularityUniversity