{"id":453289,"date":"2021-03-09T03:34:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T08:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/?p=453289"},"modified":"2021-03-09T03:34:05","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T08:34:05","slug":"xprize-and-cognizant-announce-grand-prize-winners-in-pandemic-response-challenge-to-restart-economies-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/xprize-and-cognizant-announce-grand-prize-winners-in-pandemic-response-challenge-to-restart-economies-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"XPRIZE and Cognizant Announce Grand Prize Winners in Pandemic Response Challenge to Restart Economies Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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XPRIZE and Cognizant Announce Grand Prize Winners in Pandemic Response Challenge to Restart Economies Around the World<\/b><\/p>\n

Winning AI models from VALENCIA IA4COVID19 of Spain and JSI vs COVID of Slovenia will help support decision-makers in determining pandemic intervention policies to safely reopen society<\/i><\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE<\/a>)–XPRIZE<\/a><\/b>, the world\u2019s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity\u2019s grand challenges, in partnership with Cognizant<\/b><\/a>(Nasdaq: CTSH), one of the world’s leading technology and professional services companies, today announced the Grand Prize Winners in the $500K Pandemic Response Challenge<\/b><\/a>. The four-month global competition was designed to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence in equipping policymakers, health officials and business leaders with the insights and guidance necessary to implement public safety measures that help keep local economies open while minimizing virus outbreaks as vaccines become more widely available. These decision-makers are encouraged to use the results, methodologies and technology from the challenge as reference on approaches to minimize potential outbreaks, now and moving forward.\n<\/p>\n

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20210309005419\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\nWinning first place honors isthe VALENCIA IA4COVID19 <\/b>(Valencia, Spain) team, coordinated by Dr. Nuria Oliver, Commissioner of the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana, and J. Alberto Conejero, Director of the Applied Mathematics Department at Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Val\u00e8ncia. In second place is JSI vs COVID<\/b> (Ljubljana, Slovenia), coordinated by Mitja Lustrek, Head of the Ambient Intelligence Group at the Jozef Stefan Institute, whose team members were previous competitors in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE. These top-performing teams were selected from among 48 finalists in 17 countries. Both teams will share equally the total prize purse of $500,000, however judges have chosen to distinguish team VALENCIA IA4COVID19 as first place due to their exemplary submissions. In total, over 100 teams throughout the world initially joined the competition.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Pandemic Response Challenge required teams to build effective data-driven AI systems capable of accurately predicting COVID-19 transmission rates and prescribing intervention and mitigation measures that, with testing in \u201cwhat-if\u201d scenarios, were shown to minimize infection rates as well as negative economic impacts. The winning models will be made available to policymakers, business leaders, and health officials worldwide as they consider strategies for safely reopening society and restoring the global economy.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We are absolutely thrilled to announce the winners of the Pandemic Response Challenge, and are extremely grateful to Cognizant for their support during this competition,\u201d said Amir Banifatemi, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer of XPRIZE. \u201cThis month marks a year since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak globally, and since then we have sought out various ways in which XPRIZE can help to identify and accelerate possible solutions for COVID-19 as well as strategies to keep people safe while mitigating for a back to normal world. Our hope now is to implement the methodology and technology identified via this challenge into emergency response plans for local governments worldwide, utilizing artificial intelligence to better protect everyone \u2013 from the most vulnerable in our society to the most essential workers \u2013 against future pandemics.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe salute the ingenuity and dedication of the two winning teams of the Pandemic Response Challenge, VALENCIA IA4COVID19 and JSI vs COVID, and thank all who participated in this global competition,\u201d said Brian Humphries, CEO of Cognizant. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what can happen when you bring together creative minds in data science, computer programming, machine learning, and epidemiology. Their data-driven, AI-based models will help policy makers and health officials safely restart economies and learn how to harness these technologies to tackle future public health crises.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nContestants\u2019 AI models were evaluated by an independent judging panel comprising academics, pandemic response specialists, AI experts, and epidemiologists, among others. Both grand prize-winning teams succeeded in creating effective models and meeting judging criteria that included both quantitative metrics<\/a> and qualitative factors such as:\n<\/p>\n