Winners of IBM Research UK Challenge announced

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Group photo of participants

The winners of the IBM Research UK AI summer challenge were announced during a final presentation held on Monday 12th August.

Open to students from the Management School, the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, the challenge began in June and required participants to address an Artificial Intelligence problem. 

The teams were judged by Dr Ed Pyzer-Knapp, Research Lead, Machine Learning and AI at IBM Research UK, who selected Team Aurora as the winners.  The solution they provided was a mobile app, which provided interactive storytelling for the Visually Impaired.  In addition to demonstrating their technical knowhow, the team presented a business case for their service.

Miguel Angel Li Arzapalo, a second year Mechatronics and Robotic Systems student, was part of the winning team and commented, “I decided to get involved in the challenge as it seemed like a good opportunity to acquire new skills.  I have learned how to communicate and express myself better within a team, which are skills I would carry forward throughout my career.

The best part of the challenge was that I was able to interact with people I don´t normally interact with by working with different talents from other departments.  I was able to learn from them and their areas of expertise which I think this has given me a sneak-peak of how it is to work with an interdisciplinary and international team.” 

Dr Ed Pyzer-Knapp commented, “I was impressed with the solutions the teams presented and it was great to see how the teams had formed, developed and worked together since the Challenge launch event.”

The winning team: Project Aurora