Monday, April 25, 2022

Introducing Social Impact League Projects in the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program

Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors are absolutely amazing!  They applied to the program in order to learn new skills, connect with other students who share their passion, and build a community by sharing their knowledge.  That alone makes them incredible!  But then within the Student Ambassadors community, they engage in Leagues--smaller communities formed around technical and social impact topics--in order to use their tech know-how to solve real-world challenges together!

The Student Ambassadors program recently kicked off the inaugural Social Impact League projects, where teams of up to four Student Ambassadors work together on a project centered on one of four social impact league topics--green tech, education, healthcare, or digital accessibility.

Student_Developer_Team_0-1650662488444.png

 

Over the course of three months, teams have the option to work together on one of the following three types of projects:

  • Prototype Sprint: students identify a problem that they are passionate about and then use (or acquire) their skills needed to develop and present an early prototype that solves a need for a population or community; these projects are similar to what competitors in the Imagine Cup would experience
  • Content Development: students create introductory content designed for inclusion on one of the following:
    • Microsoft Docs—the home for Microsoft documentation and learning for developers and technology professionals
    • Microsoft Learn Student Hub—a subset of Microsoft Docs that specifically is dedicated to content for students and those new to tech
    • Dev.to—a community where over 800,000 developers share, stay up-to-date, and grow their careers
  • Workshop Development: students create content that fellow Student Ambassadors (and MVPs and Cloud Advocates) can use to teach their communities

Student Ambassadors may receive the following benefits as a result of participating in a project:

  • Feedback and mentorship—valuable feedback from Cloud Advocates, project mentoring session, resume advice
  • Project recognition--content placement in Microsoft developer channels, consideration for co-hosting events, advancement to the next level within the Student Ambassadors program

 

17 teams signed up for this new quarterly program:

 

Prototype sprint projects

 

Team Name

Topic

Description of Project

Ideal Bits

Healthcare

This is a food-health recommendation system. The app tracks your health data through a smart watch or fit band and advises you about the type of food to take or avoid. Data from wearable devices is extracted and used to create a model that can suggest and warn you when ordering food from online food delivery sites or restaurants based on the data reported from your device.

Plants Watch

Green Tech

We are using computer vision to identify diseases in plants to help farmers produce better quality crops.

SafetyPins

Digital Accessibility

This is a mobile application built using Power Apps that involves an alert system, siren noises to alert people around, safer navigation system, and an emergency contact mechanism.

Sanchaar

Digital Accessibility

This project aims to develop an extension that will enable video chat apps to convert sign language used by one person to live subtitles for other people, thus removing barriers for people who are deaf or hard of hearing while communicating with those people who do not understand sign language.

Team Yaksha

Green Tech

According to Hindu mythology, Yakshas are a class of nature-spirits who are the guardians of trees, forests, and the wilderness. Yakshas are the patron of our team. Our objective is to help Mother Earth and its flora and fauna by combining the powers of IoT and AI/ML and developing an artificial nature-spirit capable of early forest fire detection and forest fire first aid.

 

Content development projects

 

Team Name

Topic

Description of Project

#00FF00

Green Tech

We are writing content that will make the "Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe core Azure concepts" Learning Path more beginner-friendly. We intend to improve on this Learning Path by focusing on the module "Describe core Azure architectural components", as we believe the section currently is more suited for intermediate/expert levels.

Birdify

Green Tech

We are developing a Dev. To blog series on using Microsoft Azure services, especially Custom Vision, to identify endangered bird species.

CoMRades

Healthcare

We are creating a Dev.to blog series to introduce how HoloLens 2, a Microsoft product powered by Mixed Reality (MR), is contributing to the healthcare industry. With HoloLens 2, health professionals can connect with remote experts, call up patient data, and go beyond X-rays to consult MRI images in 3D at the point of care.

Evergreens

Green Tech

We are focusing on creating blogs for major environmental problems for which we will also provide solutions that help retain natural resources.

EzML

Education

We are working to create a blog series for Dev.To and will be writing about AutoML and Azure Machine Learning designer.

Level_One

Education

In our Dev.To blog series, we are trying to teach what Blockchain is and how you can deploy your very own first App on Ethereum Blockchain. Our purpose is to make it as simple and as easy as possible so anyone with some basic knowledge of the area can deploy their own first app.

RAVN

Digital Accessibility

The Microsoft Accessibility Features and Tools module in the Microsoft Accessibility Fundamentals Learning Path currently focuses on the accessibility features supported by Windows 10. This project modifies the content to include the new and advanced features introduced in Windows 11.

The Green Daily

Green Tech

Our Dev.To blogs generate awareness for green challenges and explain how machine learning along with the power of the cloud (Azure) can develop solutions that can make a difference.

VS Code-Crackers

Education

We are making existing content in Microsoft Docs more beginner/student friendly. We are focusing on Visual Studio Code, as some areas could be better explained for people who don't know a lot of technical terms and for beginners to computer science.

 

Workshop development projects

 

Team Name

Topic

Description of Project

BH

Healthcare

We are creating a workshop integrating custom vision and power app to detect diabetic retinopathy.

CollegeBot

Education

We are creating a workshop about building chatbots using the QnA Maker service of Azure. We have built a chatbot to answer frequently asked questions of a particular institution and will demonstrate how to implement it on Telegram.

Ecowatch

Green Tech

Our workshop encourages people to use renewable energy in their homes. Through Azure Machine Learning Designer, we have implemented a predictive model that allows users to visualize the production of solar energy in their area and thus show the benefits of installing solar panels in their home.

 

We love the passion that drives these teams and the innovation and impact they are bringing to their own communities.  We are excited to see these projects evolve to the next level, so make sure to stay tuned on the channels above to see them featured in the near future!

 

If you’re not a Student Ambassador but are considering joining or if you’d like to learn more, don’t delay a moment longer.  Learn more about our wonderful community now! 

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