Technical University of Berlin wins Atos IT Challenge 2019 with sustainable farming app

‘Farmero’ uses Machine Learning to reduce the amount of fertilizer and pesticide used in agriculture

Paris, July 3, 2019 – Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today announces the winners of its international student competition, the Atos IT Challenge, which were presented with their awards yesterday at a ceremony presided over by Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of the Group, held at Atos’ global headquarters. Now in its eight year, the competition saw teams from 20 countries around the world compete on the theme of ‘Machine Learning for Sustainability’.
  
After an initial first round in which 15 teams were selected, the Atos IT Challenge Jury, made up of experts and Atos executives, chose three finalists. These are:

• 1st prize and competition winner: Technical University of Berlin, Germany

With an innovative and easy-to-use application called "Farmero”, the 3 students provide up-to-date and reliable disease-risk-assessments for small farms. Their solution uses state-of-the-art disease detection algorithms which are applied to infrared satellite images from the European Space Agency (Copernicus program). This helps farmers reduce the amount of fertilizer and pesticide they need to a minimum by giving them a precise evaluation of threats for every area in the field.

The team won €10,000 and each student was offered the opportunity to do either an internship at Atos or to work together with the company to develop their project.

• 2^nd prize: Polytechnic School of Dakar, Senegal

The "Weego” (ex-Sunubus) solution is a predictive bus localization application that relies on crowdsourced data and Machine Learning techniques to give its users accurate bus localization and travel times – enhancing public transport services in developing countries, where bus localization infrastructures are rare, and traffic is hard to predict.

The team won €5,000 and each student was offered the opportunity to do either an internship at Atos or to work together with the company to develop their project.

• 3^rd prize: Cantabria University, Spain

With "BinSight”, the 3 students aim to reduce food waste and make supply chains smart through various cloud-based services tailored to the needs of catering companies, governments, social entities and compost companies.

The team won €3,000 and each student was offered the opportunity to do either an internship at Atos or to work together with the company to develop their project.

At the end of the ceremony, Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos, said: "Sustainability is one of the biggest collective challenges we face today; we need to rethink the way we live and work, and make positive changes in business and society. The brilliant students present here today, as well as all of the participants in the IT Challenge 2019, have proven to us that advanced technologies, especially Machine Learning, can be enablers of a more ethical and environmentally-friendly future. I am very impressed by the quality of the contributions, outstanding creativity, and strong entrepreneurial skills I witnessed today. Congratulations to our winners and to all of our contestants!”

Thierry Breton introduced the Atos IT Challenge 2020; next year, students will have to develop innovative concepts around the theme of "cooperative intelligence”.

Since its creation in 2012, the Atos IT Challenge has empowered students from around the world to develop applications connected to major trends in the digital revolution, such as smart mobility, connected cars, interactive media, connected life, the "right to be forgotten”, blockchain and artificial intelligence. Students are mentored by members of Atos Scientific Community who provide technical and practical support, advice and encouragement.

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About Atos
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with over 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions. The group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, and Unify. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information technology space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education as well as multicultural and pluralistic approaches to research that contribute to scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the group enables its customers, employees and collaborators, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably and confidently in the information technology space.

Press contact
Lucie Duchateau – lucie.duchateau@atos.net - +33 7 62 85 35 10

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• Technical University of Berlin wins Atos IT Challenge 2019 with sustainable farming app
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