Dallas Intern Selected as Finalist in Atos IT Challenge; Accepts full-time role at NAO Regional Headquarters

 

July 4, 2018 – Vishal Kamble, a recent Business Analytics and Data Science Master of Science graduate from the University of Texas- Dallas and former Marketing Data Analytics intern at the Atos Dallas Regional Headquarters, along with fellow student, Aman Mulkalwar, were awarded third-place in the 2018 Atos Global IT challenge during an awards ceremony in Paris on July 4.

The challenge, now in its seventh year, is an annual competition for engineering students from all around the world. Its goal is to promote and encourage innovation in an open environment amongst best-in-class universities and students and to support young innovators in taking their solution forward. More than 204 teams made up of more than 650 students participated in the competition.

Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence was this year’s theme, and participants were challenged to create an innovative use case and then build a prototype using artificial intelligence and conversational interfaces. They needed to demonstrate how to provide a benefit to people and/or transform business, and how they would take their solution to market.

The University of Texas- Dallas entry- “Electra”- was a cloud-based chatbot for the utilities industry reducing customer service operation costs and providing a more personalized customer experience. Each of the teams selected for the final round were assigned a mentor from the Atos scientific community. Assisting the UT-Dallas team, was Dr. Prakash Shrivastava, an Atos distinguished expert. Shrivastava, who is based in Dallas, is also an adjunct faculty at the University of Texas- Dallas where he teaches Systems Operations Management to students in the Executive Systems Engineering and Management (SEM) program.

Three entries, including Kamble’s were selected as finalist for the competition. The winner, a Columbia University submission- “Behind The Meter”, – demonstrated how AI and chatbots can be used in automated demand response applications for connected objects, reducing costs and environmental footprint. The winning entry received €10,000 to help them bring their app to the market and the two finalists respectively €5,000 and €3,000.

Kamble, who lives in Dallas, used the experience he gained through the competition and as an Atos intern to transition to a full-time position within the company. He started as an Analytics Consultant at the regional headquarters in Dallas in May.