Robert Espina, Alejandro Cansancio, Wincent Tan, and Jericho Gantuangco (above), with their adviser Dr. Rosana Ferolin, were named grand champion of Accenture’s Program the Future Challenge 2019 besting nine other entries during the championship round today, June 29, 2019 at the Ascott BGC Tower, Pasig City.

The winning software is Parasight, a system using Artificial Intelligence that will detect the presence of Entamoeba histolytica, the parasite that causes amoebiasis. The team receives the grand prize of Php300,000.

The team, called Visionaries, was inspired to develop the system to help hospitals with a limited number of medical technologists. According to Department of Health Region 7, amoebiasis is considered as one of the most commonly reported illnesses, and when not treated immediately may result to death. Parasight allows faster and timely diagnosis of the parasite that causes amoebiasis.

Program the Future Challenge is an annual event where Accenture invites groups of students from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to present systems that are relevant and solve issues and concerns of humanity with the aid of technology.

This year’s competition has a total of 50 innovation entries from 18 schools nationwide. The number of entries was shortlisted to 20 after the initial screening in the first week of May. The semi-final round was held last May 25, 2019 at Novotel Hotel, Quezon City where only 10 teams were selected, cutting the field to half.

With reporting from Christine Marie Gohetia

Tags: Computer Engineering