A team made up of four students from UDIT, University of Design, Innovation and Technology, has won the IndesIAhack, the first edition of the university hackathon organised by IndesIA, an association created to promote the use of data and Artificial Intelligence in Spanish companies.
Specifically, students Yanick José Medina Ruiz, from the Master's Degree in Artificial Intelligence, and Pablo Menéndez-Morán, Myriam Collada Muñoz and Ignacio Lucena, all from the University's Degree in Design and Development of Video Games and Virtual Environments, were the winners of a challenge in which, together with Ferrovial, they designed an AI solution capable of detecting the weather conditions of the environment through images from the cameras that the company has installed in its infrastructures.
This prize, worth €2,000 and sponsored by Microsoft, was awarded to the best AI solution from among the 24 projects on which more than 100 students from nine universities and vocational training centres worked, with the help of professionals from companies such as Airbus, Gestamp, ITP Aero, Telefónica, Repsol, Navantia and Ferrovial itself.
For this event, these companies presented the participants with nine real challenges that industry in sectors such as construction, automotive, energy and engineering face on a daily basis, to be solved with AI-based solutions.
In this sense, along with the training experience and the possibility of connecting with leading companies in the national and international industry, the organisers also recognised the best work for each of the industrial challenges with a prize of €1,000.
In addition to winning the challenge posed by Ferrovial, last November Jeremías Zambrano, a student of the Degree in Full-Stack Development, won first prize in the challenge posed by ITPAero, and the team formed by Leonardo Carrillo and Mario Ferragut Pérez, both students of the Degree in Design and Development of Video Games and Virtual Environments, won the challenge posed by Airbus.
According to Nuria Ávalos, CEO of IndesIA, "it is not possible to advance in the application of AI without specialised talent to promote its development and implementation, but currently only 1.91% of the training offer of university degrees and master's degrees in Spain is related to these subjects. For this reason, at IndesIA we have made training a fundamental strategic pillar and our mission is not only to identify the current needs of the labour market, but also to anticipate future demands. In order to be successful, collaboration with universities and vocational training centres is essential.