Yearly, the Microsoft Think about Cup strives to empower scholar entrepreneurs from throughout the globe by highlighting their modern know-how options utilizing Microsoft know-how to create real-world affect.
With the following spherical of the competitors arising quickly, we needed to take the chance to supply some inspiration for 2026 rivals by sharing the story of Argus, a breakthrough wearable assistive system developed by Stanford College undergraduates Daniel Kim and Arjun Oberoi, and the winner of the 2025 Microsoft Think about Cup.
A deeply private inspiration
The inspiration for Argus is deeply private, stemming from Kim’s observations of his grandmother struggling together with her imaginative and prescient after a indifferent retina. Equally, Oberoi witnessed his grandfather dealing with macular degeneration. Impressed by watching the challenges skilled by their family members, Kim and Oberoi determined to create an answer. The result’s a two-part wearable system that identifies objects, acknowledges faces, and offers spatial steerage, all by means of voice interplay.
Their invention is named the Argus Panoptes, the “all‑seeing one,” and the system is designed to empower individuals with low imaginative and prescient to navigate the bodily world with extra freedom. In doing so, Kim and Oberoi hope to spare others the challenges that impaired imaginative and prescient brings, and grant these impacted with the boldness and autonomy to dwell a fuller life.
Powered by Azure: Clever, environment friendly, inclusive
Argus runs on a hybrid structure that takes benefit of Azure AI Foundry and Azure AI Speech. It’s a piece of wearable {hardware} that makes use of native edge to course of easy instructions and cloud-based inference for extra complicated duties.
The standout innovation, nevertheless, is Wi‑R, an ultra-low-power wi-fi protocol that makes use of pores and skin floor conduction to enhance web connectivity—all whereas consuming 100 instances much less energy than conventional Wi‑Fi. Meaning higher responsiveness and fewer battery adjustments for the tip consumer—which may usually be difficult for aged or in another way abled finish customers.
From the dorm to the “Basement” to the highest prize
The Argus workforce first encountered Microsoft for Startups as a part of their participation in Stanford College startup packages, most notably Stanford Enterprise Affiliation of Stanford Entrepreneurial College students (BASES), the place Microsoft for Startups companions with the student-led group to make sure that promising Stanford startups have entry to each the know-how and technical help to create essentially the most modern concepts they’ll think about.
Argus then gained extra publicity to Microsoft throughout their run on the Pink Bull Basement 2024 competitors, the place the cofounders managed to position within the Pink Bull Basement U.S. Nationwide Last. That win continued to gas an accelerated journey that culminated with the Think about Cup—a win that fully modified the trajectory of their firm.
Once we suppose again about this entire course of, all it took was an utility to Pink Bull Basement, and abruptly, all these different issues occurred. We didn’t understand that this could accumulate to successful $100,000, determining all these learnings, and assembly all these individuals alongside the way in which. You by no means know what’s going to tip that snowball, and there are virtually all the time ways in which yow will discover the time, if the concept is one thing that actually issues to you.
—Daniel Kim, Member of Profitable Workforce of the 2025 Microsoft Think about Cup
Inspiring different college students—and Microsoft
Argus represents the way forward for assistive tech: sensible, accessible, and thoughtfully designed.
Each time I meet the Think about Cup finalists, I’m impressed by their ardour, ingenuity and the daring methods they’re utilizing AI to sort out issues that matter of their communities and around the globe. They’re not simply imagining what is feasible with AI—they’re constructing it. I can’t wait to see how these startups proceed to form the long run.
—Annie Pearl, Company Vice President and Normal Supervisor of Azure Experiences and Ecosystems at Microsoft
At Microsoft for Startups, we’re proud to help scholar founders like Daniel and Arjun by means of assets, mentorship, and scalable Azure infrastructure. Their journey from classroom to world stage embodies our mission: empowering founders to construct for good.
If Argus’s story has impressed you with its ingenuity, inclusive design, and transformative affect, take into account making use of to the Think about Cup 2026. Whether or not you’re fixing accessibility challenges, local weather points, or academic gaps, your concept might be the following to alter the world.
Begin constructing at the moment with Microsoft for Startups and discover how Azure’s AI platforms will help carry your imaginative and prescient to life. We look ahead to seeing you within the Think about Cup 2026.
