A prototype app using artificial intelligence to diagnose pneumonia has won the developer an international award in New Zealand. 

New Zealand's Hamilton-based Company-X senior software developer Jiadong Chen built the prototype for an international competition run by Microsoft. The company has won contracts with New Zealand government departments and a US multinational.

Chen built an image classifier for detecting bacterial and viral pneumonia using Microsoft Azure Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Unity, winning Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional Global Cloud Skills Challenge. Microsoft Azure AI is a portfolio of AI services designed for software developers and data scientists. Unity is the leading platform for creating interactive, real-time content in 2D, 3D and virtual reality.

“Jiadong chose this project to contribute to fighting the public health emergency and help medical professionals diagnose lung diseases using AI,” said Microsoft MVP senior member Jeffrey Kitt on the Microsoft MVP Award Program blog.

Chen won a Microsoft Surface for his efforts. Six-time winner of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, Developer Technologies award, Chen is one of 3,000 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award winners internationally.