SAS, the leader in analytics, announced the winners of its 2022 SAS Hackathon. From 70 qualifying teams from around the world and 50 business case submissions, SAS recognized 13 teams for innovation using cloud-native SAS® Viya® artificial intelligence, Microsoft Azure and other technology. Tasked with tackling a real-world business or humanitarian problem, the winning teams’ projects ranged from optimizing disaster response to reducing food waste.
More than 100 judges from diverse backgrounds recognized international winners across eight industries, six technologies and three regions. The awards ceremony was broadcast live on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Unique SAS Hackathon format boosts innovation
Rather than a traditional in-person hackathon that gathers coders for a few days, SAS Hackathon participants collaborated online for a month, enhancing their data science skills under the guidance of a SAS mentor through a variety of industry tracks. Each team had access to a learning portal and the ability to try SAS techniques such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, data visualization and IoT on SAS Viya, powered by Microsoft Azure. Participants were encouraged to network while solving real-world issues that affected their communities.
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“There’s a stereotype that hackathons are just a bunch of coders hunched over computers tackling fluff challenges for the sake of it — and it isn’t true,” said Einar Halvorsen, Global Hackathon Lead at SAS.
“The end goal of the SAS Hackathon is to bring together sharp minds from many backgrounds to create a commercially viable solution for real-world problems. It’s a learning experience, an incubator and a trial for taking world-changing ideas to market.”