STATSports, ACI Worldwide and INFANT Research Centre are amongst the top Irish AI innovators recognized by AI Ireland at the third annual AI Awards ceremony, sponsored by Microsoft.
The AI Awards, which are part of the not-for-profit organisation AI Ireland, support the growth and development of Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence
in Ireland. The awards seek to recognise how AI can be ethically used to help solve some of the biggest business, academic, environmental, and health challenges facing our society today.
Anne Sheehan, General Manager, Microsoft Ireland, commented “It is great to see the ever-growing levels of innovation, creativity and ethical approaches by Irish companies to AI. Today’s winners demonstrate the positive impact that AI can bring to different industries from finance to health, in addressing environmental challenges. The AI Awards are key to fostering and recognising homegrown talent and entrepreneurship that is having positive societal impact, and we are delighted to support of the awards again for a third year.”
Mark Kelly, Founder of AI Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at Alldus, commented: “The level of innovation and creativity in the application of AI to address today’s challenges is humbling. All of the finalists have brought their unique take on how AI can be utilised and address a vast array of challenges.
“Today’s finalists and winners are examples of how world beating AI solutions can be developed ethically and in line with the new EU regulations. The breadth of innovation recognised in these awards demonstrates that Irish organisations can deliver global impact through cutting edge AI research. In our third year, we have seen these awards continue to flourish, however it reinforces the need for Ireland to develop a robust national AI strategy in line with the EU.”
The 2021 AI Award Winners are:
Best Application of AI in an Academic Research Body (Sponsored by RDI Hub)
INFANT Research Centre – for their work using deep learning to detect neonatal seizure detection. They are developing an end-to-end diagnostics solution, which integrates state-of-the-art CNNs for neonatal seizure detection with a portable, wireless and low-power EEG acquisition device.
Best Application of AI in a Large Enterprise (Sponsored by Microsoft)
ACI Worldwide – who developed Incremental Learning, a new patented technology that transforms fraud prevention within the payment solutions sector.
Best Application of AI in a Student Project (Sponsored by Altada Technology Solutions)
Eoin Kenny – A PhD student in University College Dublin for his internationally recognised work on predictive AI modelling, explainable AI and precision agriculture to solve problems in crop-growth prediction for the dairy sector.
Best Application of AI in a Consumer/Customer Service Application (Sponsored by ADAPT Centre)
Webio – for its Conversational Middleware Service enabling organisations to connect applications, digital assets across different communications platforms (SMS, WhatsApp to Alexa).
Intelligent Automation – Best Use of RPA & Cognitive (Sponsored by Mazars)
FIRE1 Foundry – has developed a novel implantable sensor solution for remote monitoring of congestive heart failure patients in their home which is enhanced by FIRE1’s continuous training of new predictive models adding diagnostic functionality to its innovative solution.
Best Application of AI in a Startup (Sponsored by Alldus International)
EdgeTier – An Irish start-up using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer service. Its WatchTower AI solution which analyses the contents of emails and chats between customers and agents in real time, detects issues or unusual trends, and alerts contact centre managers ahead of time.
Best Use of AI in Sector (Sponsored by CCT College Dublin)
STATSports – the world-leading provider of wearable player tracking devices and analysis software. Its proprietary APEX pods and Pro Series software leverages data to improve performance with sporting teams around the world and how they have effectively utilised the cloud to provide additional services to their customers.
Best Application of AI to achieve Social Good (Sponsored by IDA Ireland)
Terrain AI – is a research project led by Maynooth University and is focused on improving the understanding of the impact of human activity on land use and how it relates to climate
change, with the aim of improving carbon measurement that will inform future carbon reduction strategies.
A massive thank you to Tangent Trinity’s Ideas Workspace for hosting the event and to all our sponsors Microsoft, Alldus International, Mazars, ADAPT Centre, CCT College Dublin, RDI Hub, Altada Technology Solutions as well as partners IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland for their support.
In case you missed the virtual event, you can watch it here.