UNews - Hossein Naseri

Microsoft Imagine Cup experience opening doors for U of L students

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:46:33 +0000

They didn’t get a meeting with Bill Gates, but what Team claVision did bring away from the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition may prove to be much more valuable.

Team claVision, consisting of Hossein Naseri, left, Mohammad Akbari and mentor Dr. Howard Cheng, are preparing to go to market with their revolutionary software.

Mohammad Akbari and Hossein Naseri, under the supervision of mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, were the Canadian representatives and one of just 11 teams to qualify for the World Finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition in July. And while their innovative software program that utilizes video to capture a person’s hands as they play piano and converts it into sheet music did not garner the championship prize, it certainly earned attention from some key contacts – which bodes well for its future commercial development.

“We had some very successful demonstration sessions and our technology impressed many people, including professionals as well as reporters in both computer- and music-related industries,” says Akbari, who started the project as his master’s thesis and through the competition, was able to turn theory into practice and create a usable and marketable product. “I think getting familiar with the potential market of our product and making a good number of contacts are the main positives that we took away from this competition.”

Those in the music industry quickly understood the potential practical applications of Team claVision’s software product. Akbari says the project itself evolved throughout the various stages of the competition as the team advanced to the World Finals.

“In terms of the technical side, we have significantly improved the accuracy, speed and compatibility of our software under different conditions. In addition, based on the judges’ feedback from the previous rounds, as well as the useful tips from different professionals, we worked on the marketing side of the product to provide a feasible business plan to convey the target market of our software,” says Akbari. “Currently, we are about to start our own company to get our product to the market as soon as possible. It was really great to attract professionals such as Bill Buxton (prominent computer scientist, designer and principal researcher at Microsoft Research) to our project. We are now keeping in touch with many of them to consider their useful advice and experience to get our project to the market and achieve our goals much faster.”

That a pure research project and master’s thesis could so readily translate to a marketable product is testament to the experiential learning opportunities available to U of L students.

“It was good to see that this work was appreciated not just by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ but by practitioners in the music and computer industry as well,” says Cheng, who has worked to assist a number of students in competitions such as Imagine Cup. “I think the U of L is unique in that, despite our size compared to the other big universities, we often perform very well in these competitions. In addition to being the Canadian representative at the Microsoft Imagine Cup, we were one of only two Canadian universities to advance to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals. I really believe that our smaller program allows faculty to have a more personal approach to encourage our top students to participate in these competitions. Having our students showcase their talents on the world stage is something that I am quite proud of.”

As for Akbari and Naseri, Imagine Cup has opened up a host of opportunities.

“There is a huge potential market for our novel technology,” says Akbari. “We are very interested in utilizing this technology in order to develop different software products based on a variety of applications, both professional and educational.”

Team claVision advances to World Finals of Microsoft Imagine Cup

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:50:40 +0000

UPDATE: Team claVision did not garner a top award at the Imagine Cup competition in July but was able to make numerous contacts with members of the music and recording industry for possible further developments of their product.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Team claVision is off to the World Finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition, earning a trip to Seattle, WA at the end of July with the opportunity to win $50,000 and a meeting with Bill Gates.

Students Mohammad Akbari (seated) and Hossein Naseri have taken claVision to the World Finals of the Mircosoft Imagine Cup competition.

Master’s students, Mohammad Akbari (computer science) and Hossein Naseri (physics), along with mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, advanced through the World Semifinals round and are one of 11 teams in the Innovation category, and 35 teams worldwide, to make it to the final stage.

“It’s very exciting to make it this far and to be the only Canadian entry to get to the World Finals,” says Cheng.

The team’s project is a software program that utilizes a video camera mounted on a piano that captures a person’s hands as they play the instrument. It then converts the notes being played into sheet music.

“The idea was inspired by Beethoven,” explains Akbari, who began working on the project as part of his master’s thesis. “By the last decade of his life, he was almost totally deaf, forcing him to rely on the visual relationship between his fingers and the piano keys. claVision simulates what a deaf musician like Beethoven does.”

The practical applications of the software are many as it can be used on any kind of musical keyboard and is particularly useful as an educational aid for students learning to play piano.

Since winning the Imagine Cup Canada portion of the event and advancing to the World Semifinal stage, the team had to prepare a business plan for its product, create a 10-minute video presentation, further develop and test the software and provide an instruction manual for its use.

“When we go to Seattle, we’ll be expected to present a live, 10-minute pitch and the judges will perform hands-on testing of the software,” says Cheng. “As well, there will be a day when the public gets an opportunity to test all of the products, so we have a lot of work to do to make sure our software can withstand that scrutiny.”

The top three teams in each of the Games, Innovation and World Citizenship categories receive cash prizes, including $50,000 for first place, $10,000 for second and $5,000 for third.

To learn more about Team claVision’s project, visit the Imagine Cup website here.

Master's students win Innovation competition at Microsoft's Imagine Cup Canada

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:13 +0000

A team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s students is one step closer to winning $50,000 and a meeting with Bill Gates after claiming the Innovation category of the Imagine Cup Canada competition organized by Microsoft.

Mohammad Akbari, seated, and Hossein Naseri are looking to make the world finals of the Imagine Cup competition.

Students Mohammad Akbari (computer science) and Hossein Naseri (physics), along with mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, make up team claVision. Their project has created a new way to solve an old problem – how to transcribe piano music.

“Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students,” says Microsoft. “Social networks, music services, digital photography apps, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. In the Innovation category we are looking for the next big thing.”

That thing just might be a software program (Visual Automatic Music Transcription of Piano) developed by claVision that utilizes a video camera mounted on a piano that captures a person’s hands as they play the instrument. It then converts the notes being played into sheet music.

“Mohammad has been working on this project as part of his master’s thesis project under my supervision,” says Cheng. “The big difference between this work and existing products is that this program can be used on any standard piano or electronic keyboard. The music is detected by ‘watching’ the pianist during the performance using video analysis algorithms. Other products require the use of a special electronic keyboard that transmits the keys pressed to a computer.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team is one of three winners from the first round of competition in Imagine Cup Canada, and will now challenge winners from the Games category (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary) and World Citizenship category (Marianopolis College) for the right to represent Canada at the 2014 Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle, Wash. in July 2014. There, teams will compete for the coveted Imagine Cup trophy, up to $50,000 USD and the opportunity to meet Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

“The team now has a chance to improve upon their software, as well as submit a project proposal and video presentation to further impress the judges,” says Cheng. “The project will be graded on technical merits as well as other criteria such as innovation and marketability. It’s almost like going into a Dragon’s Den presentation!”

Microsoft Imagine Cup is in its 12th year and is a competition that invites students to use technology to do amazing things.

To view a video demonstration of claVision’s program, click here.

UNews - Hossein Naseri

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