UNF, JEA, FIS and Microsoft host hackathon to solve environmental challenges
University of North Florida students and JEA data scientists teamed up over the weekend with FIS and Microsoft to host AI for Good, a 48-hour hackathon challenging student teams to build solutions that drive social and environmental change.
JEA data scientists provided a potential real-world problem addressing solar power generation and utility vehicle route optimization as well as the data for the competition. The UNF student teams then worked for 48 hours to come up with the best data solutions to address the challenge. FIS served as the lead sponsor and organizer for the event. Microsoft provided students access to technological resources needed to solve the hackathon problems.
The student teams were made up of computing, business, statistics, psychology, and engineering majors. First, second and third place teams were awarded cash gift cards.
The AI for Good theme correlates with another UNF internship program that analyzes data for nonprofits called Data Science for Social Good. JEA has also supported the data science project for years by providing subject matter experts to mentor and coach the teams.
Judges for the competition included Ashish Talati and Steve Lindsey from Microsoft; David Berglund from FIS; Matt Berseth from NLP Logix; Timothy Hunt from JEA; and Dr. Lakshmi Goel, UNF Coggin College associate dean.