Last year, a team of UALR graduate business students won second runner-up in the national Microsoft Corp. Imagine Cup Software Design Initiative competition. This year, UALR won two of five spots in the national competition.

“This is astounding,” said Dr. Coskun Bayrak, professor of computer science and a coach of this year’s winners.  Both teams are from the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology.

UALR Team CDSS-AI – Artificial Intelligence-based Complex Decision Support System – competed with a software design program that accurately predicts the fibrosis stage in hepatitis patients. Team members are Ph.D. candidates Brian Keltch of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Yuan Lin of Quanzhou, Fujian, China.

The second UALR team, Mogollar, developed a video archive to help with the increasing amount of digital data that hospitals generate. Members are Ph.D. candidate Engin Mendi of Konya, Turkey; and master of science students Songul Cecen of Tokat, Turkey, and Emre Ermisoglu of Balikesir, Turkey.

The UALR teams will head to Washington in April for the National Imagine contest, competing against a team from Illinois Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech, a team from the University of California at Davis, and a third from San Jose State. The winner will represent the United States in the International Competition in Poland.

Three prizes are at stake at the national level – a grand prize of $8,000 and the chance to compete for the $24,000 prize in Poland, a $4,000 first prize, and a $3,000 second prize.

Last year, a team of UALR graduate management information systems students was selected among five teams in the world to compete for the H.E. Susan Mubarak Special Award at the worldwide Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Initiative Finals in Cairo, Egypt, a stunning accomplishment for the University in its first year of competing.

The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s largest competition, and they invest millions in it each year. Contests are conducted in several categories including Software Design, Game Design, and Web Design.