SLASSCOM's "Future X" finals mobilizes new talent and innovative ventures

FutureX was organized to encourage tech innovations which will address socio economic issues in Sri Lanka and to develop and promote innovation and technopreneurship among the university students. The event saw 12 teams that had won their way to the finals, competing for the grand prize of a half a million rupees in cash at the Trace City premises in Maradana, the organisers said in a media release.

Selected from amongst 92 applicants, the institutes and universities reaching the finals included the Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT), Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), University of Peradeniya, NSBM, University of Kelaniya, University of Moratuwa and Kotelawala Defence University.

"Each of the teams showcased their drive and spirit of innovation and the zest of entrepreneurship. These projects ranged from Braille Band Blind Support through an IoT wearable devise for blind people, solution for minimizing energy and electricity wastage in homes, a GPS based mobile application which tracks the location of buses and gives the commuters an exact indication of the arrival of a particular bus to a particular bus stop, a Comprehensive Search Engine for All Education Options in Sri Lanka after O/L, after A/L's, an online live tutoring platform, a B2B kiosk platform and a Human Motion Analysis for Cricket Analytics," the release said.

The winning title went to the team behind 'Project Kairos' from the University of Moratuwa. Kairos revolves around human motion analysis which provides a solution to issues in the world of cricket such as chucking and inability to analyse bowlers' performance effectively. According to the team, this would be Sri Lanka's first ever 3D motion capturing system that would be powered by wearables.

SpecBuddy and BrailleBand came in 2nd and 3rd places, respectively.