In July 2018 the first edition of Asia-Pacific Innovation Academy was launched in Shenzhen. 3 weeks in the fast phased environment of the makers capital brought together a community of more than 350 innovators. Pushed out of the comfort zone and in a completely different environment, surrounded by like-minded people from across the globe they learned what it takes to become a global entrepreneur.

Here are the top teams from Asia-Pacific Innovation Academy 2018.

Heart Signal develops integrated wearable sensors that track health condition and send the information to the personal cloud database. Integrated AI gives instant feedback to the customer and for the doctor, which helps to track any anomalies and saves lives.
AWARD: Access to Shanghai Cross-strait Youth Entrepreneurship Competition with guaranteed awards of 10,000RMB up to 200,000RMB and possible investment up to 500,000
SPECIAL AWARD: a Provisional patent from Nixon Peabody
SPECIAL AWARD: 1 week of mentoring by HAX

Ningning Wang, Nantong University
Reicho Murakami, Tsinghua University
Tao Jiang, Tsinghua University
Wenying Qiu, Tsinghua University
Xiangyu Wu, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute

Genesis/EVA Protocol makes voice coding as intuitive and effortless as speaking. The team aims to solve the problem of suffering from RSI (repetitive strain injury) what haunts nearly half of the active programmers, by allowing them to code with the voice.
AWARD: an Expedited interview with Alchemist Accelerator

Alexander Jakobsen, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
David Fitzek, Chalmers University of Technology
Kenneth Wong, Durham University
Su Jiang, Shanghai Urban Construction Vocational College

Heaps is redesigning your traveling experience by having your luggage picked up at any place and dropped off at the airport when you want. No more hustle with the heavy luggage!
AWARD: Business Mentoring over 6 months period with Dybaw Venture Capital
SPECIAL AWARD: Trademark from Nixon Peabody

Cathy Chi, Leiden University
Hasan Sami Ozturk, King’s College London
Hailey Yuan, New York University
Brontë Kolar, Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific
Bruce Wong, Shenzhen University

Fern is your trusty virtual gardener, making sure your plants stay healthy when you forget to. Fern reduces the effort required to grow and maintain healthy indoor greenery. Using sensor technology, Fern provides you with real-time updates about your plants’ health and provides automatic watering and self-drainage.
AWARD: Design Mentorship over a 1 year period by Snowfire Design Community

Danielle Seymour, University of Adelaide
Mads Bering, Aarhus University
Olivia Holbrook, Dublin Institute of Technology
Roger Han, University of Bergen
Yugansh Chokra, Delhi University

B2Brain has a mission to create a reliable environment where startups can find affordable talents proven by live videos.
AWARD: Business Mentoring over a 3 months period by HAG Consulting

Ben Chubin Xu, South China University of Technology
Dasol Kim, Zhejiang University
Lisa Moretti, Anglia Ruskin University
Panpan Ma, Nanjing Forestry University
Sucharitha Chokkappa Gari, Madanapalli Institute of Technology and Science

Raply is an entertainment platform that gives everyone an opportunity to become a rap star. Imagine the combination of Musical.ly, traditional Chinese karaoke, and Snap. Raply provides a mobile app where you can easily record your rap songs, autotune your rapping to sound better and share it with other rap music lovers in order to get useful feedback or to collect new fans and get discovered.
AWARD: Marketing Mentoring over a 1 year period by Hunter & Bard

Nele Saarelaid, Tallinn University of Technology
Pavel Andreevski, Yanka Kupala State University
Pavlo Pedenko, Setapp.com (MacPaw)
Vital Rozhevski, Kyiv Polytechnical University
Yauheni Stralets, School of Business and Management of Technology

Acrolyzer is an acrobatic sports analysis tool. Fusing together video and IMU data, it provides easily interpretable data for coaches and athletes, who want to take their training to the next level.
AWARD: Pitch60 consultation over a 1 year period by otherDOTs

Andres Namm, The University of Hong Kong
Dipixa Sharma, University of Wollongong
Sten Remmelg, Chalmers University of Technology
Sufyaan Ibraimo, Oxford Brookes University

TanZu 探职 is a platform that connects Chinese international students with jobs back in China and aims to disrupt the Chinese recruitment industry by focusing on authenticity, speed, and simplifying the application process.
AWARD: Design Mentoring over a 1 year period by IMAGINE \TBWA

Cillian Burke, University College Dublin
Lei Cao, Zhejiang University
Mario Robert D’Ambrosio, University of Naples Federico II
Nathan Huggins, University College Dublin
Qianru Liu, EDHEC Business School

IRIS is your online family doctor to help you with pre-screening your symptoms, give advice for relief or make an appointment. IRIS will reduce limited access to primary medical consultation and overcrowded hospitals that are common in China.
AWARD: Access to Shanghai Cross-strait Youth Entrepreneurship Competition with guaranteed awards of 10,000RMB up to 200,000RMB and possible investment up to 500,000

Anastasios Mastroanastasiou, Karolinska Institute
Gale, South China University of Technology
Kerli Kustola, Chalmers University of Technology
Lin Ye, Nanjing Forestry University
Xiaochen Zhu, University of Edinburgh

Aqualight brings incredible sound quality, real-time conversation, and convenience underwater by developing a wearable device based on the blue LED. This can solve the problem that divers to communicate with each other underwater, using a unique method to overcome the challenges that traditional acoustic and RF communication approaches facing.
SPECIAL AWARD: 1 week of mentoring by HAX

George Wang, University of Calgary
Leo Yunfan Wei, University of Adelaide
Zhuopeng Wei, Shanghai Urban Construction College
Zihan Zang, Tsinghua University
Zixian Wei, Tsinghua University

Top 15 teams of APIA 2018 had a chance to access Shen Chuang Cup Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition at Shenzhen University and selected teams enjoyed the visit Cloud City of Brightvision Capital in Yuyao, Ningbo.