We’ve reached the much-anticipated Alexa Diabetes Challenge finalist announcement. Today, we are proud to announce the five finalists whose concepts utilize artificial intelligence-powered technology, virtual coaching, personalized nutrition assistance, and even a smart foot scanner to improve the lives of those with type 2 diabetes. Each will receive $25,000 and 10,000 AWS promotional credits and advance to the Virtual Accelerator.
We received an impressive 96 submissions, which illuminate the many different ways voice technologies can support those with type 2 diabetes. The Challenge sparked interest from 82 countries across the world, from India to Ukraine to the UK, a testament to the global potential for voice-enabled solutions. Choosing five finalists was no easy feat for our judges, a panel of experts independent from Merck & Co., who made their selections based on criteria which included feasibility and potential for true impact.
Congratulations to the following five finalists!
- DiaBetty, University of Illinois at Chicago: A virtual diabetes educator and at-home coach that is sensitive and responsive to a patient’s mood. It provides patients with context-dependent, mood sensitive, and emotionally aware education and guidance, enhancing patient skills for self-management.
- My GluCoach, HCL America, Inc.: A holistic management solution, developed in partnership with Ayogo, that blends the roles of voice-based diabetes teacher, lifestyle coach, and personal assistant to serve the individual and specific needs of the patient. It leverages health pattern intelligence from sources such as patient conversations and wearable and medical devices.
- PIA: Personal intelligent agents for type 2 diabetes, Ejenta: A connected care intelligent agent that uses NASA-licensed AI technology integrated with IoT device data to encourage healthy habits, detect at-risk behaviors and abnormalities, and alert care teams.
- Sugarpod, Wellpepper: A multimodal solution that provides specialized voice, mobile, video, and web interactions to support patient adherence to comprehensive care plans. It offers education, tips, and tracking tools, including a smart foot scanner, which uses a classifier to identify potential abnormalities.
- T2D2: Taming type 2 diabetes, together, Columbia University: A virtual nutrition assistant that uses machine learning to provide in-the-moment personalized education and recommendations as well as meal planning and food and glucose logging. Its companion skill authorizes caregivers to connect with a patient’s account to easily engage from afar.
The finalists will advance to the Virtual Accelerator and receive expert mentorship as they continue to develop their proposals. To kick off this phase of the Challenge, Luminary Labs will host an Innovators’ Boot Camp for the finalists at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.
At the end of the Virtual Accelerator, finalists will present their solutions in-person to the judges at Demo Day at the AWS Pop-up Loft in NYC. The judging panel will assess the finalists’ iterated solutions and select a winner to receive the $125,000 grand prize.
Stay tuned for the winner announcement later this year and follow the Challenge at @ADchallenge for the latest updates.