美国和英国球队分享1000万美元的XPRIZE大奖

American, British Teams Share $10 Million XPRIZE Award

A California company and a British-based group are sharing a $10 million award for developing programs to help children teach themselves how to read.

The two winners are the Kitkit School, based in Berkeley, California, and the educational nonprofit organization onebillion of London.

Nearly 200 teams from 40 countries entered the competition. They sought to become the latest winner of an XPRIZE. Money for the international award comes from inventors, billionaires and philanthropists. Their aim is to make the world a better place through technology.

Businessman Elon Musk¹ announced the two winners at a ceremony Wednesday night in Los Angeles, California. The event recognized and honored all five of the finalists. The XPRIZE For Global Learning was worth $15 million, with the money coming from Musk. Each finalist received $1 million. The two winners each received an additional $5 million.

The XPRIZE Foundation, a non-profit group, reports that more than 250 million children worldwide cannot read or write.

The goal of the competition was to develop an open-source software program, which was put on computer tablets donated by Google. Then the devices were given to thousands of children in 170 villages in Tanzania for testing.

The five finalists spent 15 months improving the software. They had to develop programs filled with games that would interest children and hold their attention. The programs used pictures, letters, numbers and sounds to help the users teach themselves to read, write and do simple mathematics.

The games would show children letters and pictures, let them write over letters to learn how to write, and even read books to them.

When testing began, XPRIZE officials said only two percent of the children could read a simple sentence in Swahili, their native language. Three-fourths of the boys and girls had never attended school. Many had to be shown how to power up the device. But 15 months later, 30 percent of the children had gained basic reading skills.

Both winning teams said the hardest part was developing software at their home bases, putting it on tablets and hoping the children would understand how to use it.

“We had to learn fast and work closely with partners who were in East Africa,” said Sooinn Lee, who co-founded Enuma Inc. The company operates Team Kitkit School.

“It often felt like driving in the dark,” Lee added.

Yet all five finalists developed operational, open-source software, which will be put on the internet for anyone to use. Judges decided² that the two winners did the best when it came to producing results.

The success among the finalists likely came as a surprise to critics. Some people wondered whether the goal could be reached when the XPRIZE Foundation announced the competition five years ago.

“All our experts said, ‘Are you sure about this,’” remembered Emily Musil Church. She is chief of prize operations for XPRIZE.

The winners of the prize Wednesday night will now get to work making their software available to as many people as possible.

Lee said Kitkit’s efforts will include making a version of its software for smartphones, which are widely used in many developing countries. And, onebillion wants to offer its software in a number of languages to reach as many people as possible.

Judith Hermetter is onebillion’s chief of communications. She said the software will mean a lot to users around the world.

“This will be transformational for them, their communities and their countries.”

I'm Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

philanthropist - n. a wealthy person who gives money and time to help make life better for other people

source - n. a person, book, etc., that gives information

tablet - n. a flat, rectangular³ computing⁴ device that is used for connecting to the Internet, watching videos, reading books, etc.

transformational - adj. relating to a complete or major change in someone's or something's appearance, form, etc.

1 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 rectangular   

adj.矩形的，成直角的

参考例句：

• He put a rectangular box on the table.他把一个长方形的箱子放在桌子上。
• The equations are written in rectangular coordinates.这些方程是在直角座标系中写出的。

4 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。