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
XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating
incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, in
partnership with Cognizant (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. 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.
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Winning first place honors is the VALENCIA IA4COVID19
(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 Politècnica de València. In second place is JSI
vs COVID (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.
The 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 “what-if” 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.
"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,” said Amir
Banifatemi, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer of XPRIZE. “This
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 – from the most
vulnerable in our society to the most essential workers – against
future pandemics.”
“We 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,”
said Brian Humphries, CEO of Cognizant. “It’s 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.”
Contestants’ 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
and qualitative factors such as:
- Actionability and Usability of the models in real-world
settings;
- Inclusivity and Fairness, which assessed how the models take
into account particularly vulnerable groups;
- Collaborative Contributions that awarded teams who created open
source models or contributed data and models for the shared success
of all;
- Innovation, which considered whether teams found innovative
ways to extend the scope of the Challenge
Complete judging criteria and Challenge guidelines are available
on the XPRIZE website.
VALENCIA IA4COVID19 has collaborated with the Valencian
government since March 2020 to leverage data science in the fight
against COVID-19. Ultimately, the team’s winning model successfully
forecasted epidemiological evolution through their use of AI and
data science. JSI vs COVID worked to develop accurate predictors of
COVID-19 infections using a combination of a SEIR epidemiological
model and machine learning. Through the Challenge, both teams hope
to achieve more accurate models for predicting the evolution of
COVID-19 that can be used in their respective countries and
beyond.
In addition to the two grand prize winners, eight other teams
have received honorable mentions and will each receive $3,000 in
AWS credits for cloud and compute services, courtesy of AWS, a
supporting partner of the Challenge. These teams are:
- metis2020 (Los Angeles, Calif., US)
- mvsm (Berlin, Germany)
- CoronaSurveys (Madrid, Spain)
- Nixtamal AI (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Shanvi (San Diego, Calif., US)
- Kangaroos (Ultimo, Australia)
- ADVANCE4COVID (Rochester, NY, US)
- Nebraska team (Omaha, Neb., US)
All teams competing in the Pandemic Response Challenge used
Cognizant’s foundational research and Evolutionary AI™ modeling as
a baseline, building out their models using data compiled by the
Oxford COVID-19 Government response tracker (based at Oxford
University’s Blavatnik School of Government). The Pandemic Response
Challenge was first launched in November 2020, and comprised two
phases:
- Phase 1, concluded in January 2021: Contestants analyzed local
COVID-19 data, existing intervention strategies, and common
mitigation policies to develop and test prediction models capable
of anticipating global infection spikes.
- Phase 2, concluded in February 2021: Contestants developed a
“prescriptor” model, which could suggest realistic intervention
plans for reopening global economies while minimizing the number of
COVID-19 cases and the cost of deploying intervention plans.
To facilitate development of their proposed solutions, teams
were offered free cloud and computing services from AWS.
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a vast spectrum of
unprecedented government and community interventions. The Pandemic
Response Challenge used the most advanced AI technology, coupled
with some of the most creative minds in the fields of data science,
computer programming, machine learning, and more, to jumpstart new
strategies for effectively reopening societies and restarting
economies safely for everyone – as well as test scenarios that
might be applied going forward.
Moving forward, XPRIZE and Cognizant, along with International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), are expanding these efforts beyond
the scope of this competition to one of a public platform and
ecosystem that encourages the convening of AI and data while
enabling the contributions of experts and thought leaders of the
global community of public health. Details of the public platform
will be announced soon. Those interested in joining and
contributing to these efforts are encouraged to contact XPRIZE at
pandemicresponse@xprize.org.
Learn more by watching this film
explaining the Pandemic Response Challenge.
About XPRIZE
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the global leader
in designing and implementing innovative competition models to
solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include
the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon
XPRIZE, $15M XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE
Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $6 Million XPRIZE Rapid
COVID Testing, $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE
Rapid Reskilling, and $500K Pandemic Response Challenge. For more
information, visit xprize.org.
About COGNIZANT
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world's leading
professional services companies, transforming clients' business,
operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique
industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build
and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in
the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 194 on the Fortune 500 and is
consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world.
Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at
www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210309005419/en/
Sunshine Sachs xprize@sunshinesachs.com
Nicole Ryan, XPRIZE prcontact@xprize.org
Jodi Sorensen, Cognizant
jodi.sorensen@cognizant.com
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