A robot developer from Skolkovo’s IT cluster will compete for the chance to represent Russia at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup world finals after emerging victorious in the national stage of the innovations competition.
Lexy's Dmitry Suvorov, right, holds a winner's certificate at the Moscow Technopolis. Photo: sk.ru
The team behind Lexy, a green-and-black orb that acts as a robotic home assistant, triumphed in the ‘innovations’ category at the event at the Moscow Technopolis over the weekend, winning a berth in the prestigious competition’s semifinals.
“It’s so great, we’ve won a big competition and now we have the chance of reaching the world finals,” said Dmitry Suvorov, the project’s director.
“That’s a really big deal for us, because we’ll be able to bring Lexy out into the world market and get a foothold in America. Presenting the project at that kind of competition is an excellent opportunity. We’re hoping to meet some good investors,” he added.
National finals are held in 59 countries, with online finals accessible to innovators in a further 56. Lexy advances to the online semifinals along with the winners of two other categories - games and social projects - at the Moscow national finals.
All projects at the semifinals will be presented in English, which could be a challenge for Suvorov, he admitted.
“We’ll be working on our English,” he said.
Suvorov appeared to be exaggerating slightly, however: Microsoft’s coordinator for academic programs in the company’s strategic technology department, Dmitry Sochnikov, said he had spoken with all the participants in the days before the weekend competition, and all displayed acceptable levels of English.
Lexy. Company photo.
The world finals are July 27-31 at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, where $50,000 will go to the overall winners of each category, $10,000 to the runners-up and $5,000 for the third-place finishers.
The exposure offered by the event, now in its 13th year, frequently leads to investment that can dwarf the prize money, say the organizers.
The idea behind Lexy is to provide a robot that answers all the regular kinds of questions that current smartphones and tablets can – what the weather's like, what’s playing at the movies, where’s the nearest Chinese restaurant – but also tiptoe into areas of artificial intelligence.
Lexy will recognize you and say hello, should you walk into the room. The little black and green orb will ask to shut the window when it’s too cold, or snap at you if it’s cranky.
Albert Efimov, Skolkovo’s chief roboticist, noted that the Moscow event marked the first victory of a Skolkovo resident at such a prestigious international competition.
“Also, this team isn’t just out of Skolkovo, but they also have research students from Skoltech, which vindicates our idea of technological convergence” among elements of the Skolkvo ecosystem, Efimov said.