XPRIZE and Cognizant Announce Grand Prize Winners in Pandemic Response Challenge to Restart Economies Around the World - Seite 2

"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.