Five Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge judges left to deliberate and nervousness grew at Dorsey Learning Hall -- an apprehensive smile here, a deep breath there, two students sharing a good-luck fist bump, another adjusting a tie that didn’t need it.
Eight teams and 13 students with a wide variety of academic backgrounds had just delivered unique presentations for a chance to win a share of $30,000 in prizes at the annual Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering-hosted Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge that encourages students to use technology in innovative ways to address compelling problems.
After 15 minutes, the judges returned and recognized four teams for their technological innovations.
Music Informatics Ph.D. student Kaitlin Pet took first and won $15,000 for Live Video Accompaniment, a pipeline for adapting traditional ‘static’ music videos to music videos that automatically synchronize with a musician during live performances.
Durgakant Pushp, a Ph.D. student in Intelligent Systems Engineering, placed second and earned $10,000 for his UAV-miniUGV System, which combines aerial drones with ground robots to do search-and-rescue missions, mine blasting, disaster recovery and more.
Tying for third were ARtreides from Ben and Nick Frische, and Mathmemo by Isha Mahajan. Nick Frische is an Informatics junior. Ben Frische is a Kelley School of Business senior who already has a job lined up with Abercrombie and Fitch. Mahajan is a second-year master’s student in Human-Computer Interaction Design. Each team received $2,500.
ARtreides uses a multitude of technologies to allow users to try on clothing virtually.
Mathmemo is a note-taking application that helps students with dyscalculia, a difficulty in performing math calculations, write mathematical notes efficiently. The product helps students write notes catered to their learning style and encourages them to stay consistent with learning.
Challenge criteria included technical feasibility, a good development plan, a sound use-of-funds strategy, a novel concept and capability to serve society.
“All the judges believed that the teams performed really well,” said Julie Heath, executive director at IU Innovates and one of the judges. “The teams were phenomenal in how they met each of those criteria.”
Travis Brown, senior executive assistant dean of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization, said the Challenge pushed students to think big and make the impossible possible.
“Every year the pool of students gets stronger,” he said. “We had a great group of judges who validated that these teams put forth interesting ideas.”
The Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge was launched in 2016 as an opportunity for students to develop technological innovations without the constraint of building a business around their ideas. Luddy alumnus and serial entrepreneur Cheng Wu established the fund that sponsors the challenge.
The competition is open to all Indiana University students, although each team must have at least one Luddy student.
“Some might think having at least one Luddy student will confine the scope of ideas,” Brown said, “but we had ideas ranging from virtual clothes fitting to video accompaniment of music to aerial drones and terrestrial drones working together. It runs the gamut. That’s why the judges keep coming back. They get to see these new ideas.”
Brown said there is always concern the competition will generate technology ideas “untethered from marketability.” Students are encouraged to focus on what might be possible, then converge around what might be viable in the market.
“My hope is they will start to test their technological innovations through the market and then think through pricing and what the market will tolerate,” he said.
Pet, who plays the obo, compared Live Video Accompaniment to the Disney cartoon movie classic, “Fantasia’s Sorcerer's Apprentice,” where Mickey Mouse’s movements are in sync to the music.
Pet worked on the idea with her sister Nikki Pet, who is completing her clarinet performance Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music. This was part of Kaitlin’s Ph.D. thesis research through advisor Christopher Raphael, professor of Music Informatics.
“My sister was a huge part of this venture,” Kaitlin said. “Her vision was integral in bringing out the full potential of this technology.”
Kaitlin said she and her sister might take time off to work on this project. The prize money will help with research and development, plus the purchase of better software and new demo equipment.
“Having more money will help make the demos run more reliably,” she said. “For musicians, they need to see something working to try it.”
Another judge, Alain Barker, director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development at the Jacobs School of Music, was optimistic about the idea’s potential.
“I’m so excited that the world of music can be brought into the world of Informatics in this way, and that IU supports this cross-disciplinary project,” he said.
“I have watched this technology grow. It’s amazing how at Indiana University you can have a seed of an idea and have students benefit from that, then take it into the world themselves with their own version and vision of what that technology can be.”
Pushp said the idea for combining an aerial drone with a ground robot came while working on a different project.
“I thought in what way can a robot assist to help society. Then I realized, we can make it work.”
He said this is the second version of this prototype. He will use the money to make the system more robust and efficient.
Other teams were:
Flick – Prasanna Pandiane (M.S. HCI/d), Ritwik Mittal (M.S. HCI/d) and Shrey Maheshwari (M.S. HCI/d). It’s an AI-powered application that aims to transform digital engagement for older adults by crafting intuitive, task-specific interfaces from user intent.
HapticMR Jam – Kaidi Fan (M.S. HCI/d) and Ruixiang Han (Ph.D. HCI/d). It uses a mixed reality headset and haptic training to target memory deterioration.
Locus – Evan O’Neil (B.S. Fine Arts) and Ziqi Zhu (M.S. HCI/d). It’s an artificial reality glasses app that helps young adults with ADHD manage their daily tasks by interacting with annotations floating around the virtual environment.
StealthQR – Sajith Alapati (M.S. Computer Science). It aims to revolutionize vehicle identification and toll collection with invisible QR codes.
Non-winning teams are eligible for future Challenges.
Remaining judges were Donald F. Kuratko, Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Executive Director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Kelley School of Business; Ilya Rekhter, CEO at Megawatt; and Ravi Bhatt, founder and CEO, Folia.
Brown said the Challenge allows the Luddy School to showcase its students’ capabilities.
“Our students are technologically proficient, and this is the perfect venue to showcase that. Cheng Wu said, ‘Why aren’t we see seeing our students put forth ideas that I know they’re capable of producing?’ It was about giving them the right venue for it and this competition serves that purpose.
“We didn’t want sci-fi ideas. We wanted something that could actually be built and implemented. We wanted students to be thoughtful about how they’ll use the money to bring their ideas to fruition to benefit society.”