NVIDIA and Cogeco Peer 1 Sponsor 24-Hour Programming Event.
JANUARY 24, 2017, TORONTO ON – Daisy Intelligence Corporation, an artificial intelligence software-as-a-service company, announced today the inaugural “Daisy AI challenge 24-hour Hackathon,” to be held January 28-29, 2017, at the University of University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, St. George Campus. Sponsored by NVIDIA and Cogeco Peer 1, the Daisy AI Hackathon event is open to all engineering and computer science students at the University of Toronto.
The competition will start at 10:00am EST on January 28, and contestants will have 24 hours to design and build their programming projects. Several Daisy Intelligence engineers and Daisy founder and CEO Gary Saarenvirta will be onsite offering help and expertise where needed. At the end of the coding period, teams will go head-to-head for a chance to win monetary prizes and an opportunity for an internship at Daisy Intelligence.
A total of 56 student teams have registered for the competition. They will be tasked to solve highly complex parallel computing problems by utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning methods. Participation is open to all skill levels: the competition is designed to be completed by participants with a range of programming skills and experience levels.
“We’re thrilled to work with our partners at NVIDIA, Cogeco Peer 1 and the University of Toronto on this event,” said Saarenvirta. “We’re honoured to host our first hackathon with the support of the best hardware and technology providers in the industry at the world renowned engineering school at the University of Toronto. There’s a lot of great talent in our city and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.”
“A.I. is driving the next industrial revolution, and GPU deep learning is powering it,” said Kimberly Powell, Senior Director of AI Business Development at NVIDIA. “We’re supporting the Canadian computer engineering community to encourage students to get familiar with state-of-the-art AI computing platforms and transform their ideas into cool applications.”
“While winning a prize is always nice, the point is to bring students together so they can learn from each other and provide a practical environment where they can apply their skills,” said Saarenvirta. “Through this hackathon, we’re helping train the next generation of A.I. scientists and engineers in the most exciting area of emerging technology, artificial intelligence, which is critical to fostering Canadian innovation and global competitiveness.”
About Daisy Intelligence
Daisy Intelligence is an artificial intelligence software-as-a-service company that analyzes very large quantities of our clients’ transaction and operational data in order to make automated operational decision recommendations which our clients can immediately action to improve their business. Using our proprietary mathematical solutions and the Daisy A.I. based simulation platform, Daisy Intelligence analyzes 100% of the tradeoffs inherent in any complex business question and provides weekly, specific recommendations to help our corporate clients grow total sales, improve margins, reduce fraud and delight customers. www.daisyintelligence.com
About Cogeco Peer 1
Cogeco Peer 1 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) and is a global provider of essential business-to-business products and services, such as colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services that allow customers across Canada, Mexico, the United States and Western Europe to focus on their core business. With 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network® and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe combined, Cogeco Peer 1 is a trusted partner to businesses small, medium and large, providing the ability to access, move, manage and store mission-critical data worldwide, backed by superior customer support. To learn more visit www.cogecopeer1.com.
About University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is Canada’s premier engineering school and among best in the world. Our diverse community includes more than 5,400 undergraduates, 2,300 graduate students, 260 academic staff and nearly 50,000 alumni. Through innovations in engineering education, we prepare the next generation of global engineering leaders with strong technical foundations and professional competencies in multidisciplinary research, teamwork, leadership and entrepreneurship. Our faculty members are international leaders in research who collaborate across disciplines to address key global challenges, from new diagnostics and treatments for human diseases to wearable technology, smart cities and renewable energy.
For more information, contact:
Gary Saarenvirta
CEO, Daisy Intelligence Corporation
gsaarenvirta@daisyintel.com
905.642.2629 ext. 221
Shawna Gee
Director, Communications, Cogeco Peer 1
shawna.gee@cogecopeer1.com
Christina Heidorn
External Relations Officer, Division of Engineering Science
Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto
engsci@ecf.utoronto.ca
416.978.8634
