Atos reveals the 17 shortlisted teams of the 2017 IT Challenge dedicated to blockchain technologies

15 December, 2016

Atos reveals today the 17 shortlisted teams in its IT Challenge – the first ever international student technology competition that is running for the sixth year.

IT Challenge

This year’s theme invites students to tackle the ubiquitous challenge of establishing and maintaining trust, security and privacy while managing the integrity of business transaction thanks to blockchain technologies.

The students were asked to come up with an innovative concept based on existing blockchain platforms – such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Multi Chain – and to show how the principles of safe, public accounts can be used to break through conventional business models.

With teams from 19 countries participating, the standard was very high and the submitted concept very promising. The students got inspired by this fledgling technology and have unleashed its great potential with their ideas related notably to health, education, finance or government.

Gilles Grapinet, Senior Executive Vice President, Global Functions at Atos and Chairman of the IT Challenge Jury, said: “At Atos we really love the constantly growing enthusiasm generated by our Atos IT Challenge over years within so many remarkable universities and Engineering schools from all over the world. The number and quality of submissions we have received this year is particularly impressive. I can say that choosing the best concepts was a really heartbreaking task for our selection committee, explaining our exceptional decision to extend this year the number of shortlisted teams to 17. I thank all those who participated and shared their ideas with us and I really look forward to seeing how the shortlisted teams turn their ideas into proofs of concepts over the next few months.”

The shortlisted teams:

The 17 shortlisted team,s chosen by a Jury made up of members of the Atos Scientific Community – a global network of 100 experts, are:

France:

B-Health from ISEP
BlockTrade from Université Paris 1 Panthéon
Cachette from Ecole des Mines deParis
E-tickets from ENSEIRB-MATMECA
ITCare from ENSEIRB-MATMECA

Germany

Trading Rooftop Solar Power through Blockchain from FH Aachen, University of Applied Sciences

India

Blockchains for Organ Transfer from Indian Institute of Technology

Malaysia

FoodChain from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus

Russia

BlackBoxChain from Voronezh State University

Singapore

Crumbs from Nanyang Technological University

United Kingdom

Ammoenio from University College
Astonish Health from Aston University
Evoto from Loughborough University
MedicalDossier from Nottingham Trent University
Quo from Lancaster University
TransactR from Aston University

United States

NeuroMesh from MIT

In the next phase, each team will be assigned a mentor that will provide guidance and advice on how to build the proof of concept they will have to present in May 2017. Three finalists will then be chosen and the winner will be announced in June.

The Prizes

For the first time the winner and runners up will receive cash prizes – €10,000, €5,000 and €3,000 respectively – to help bring their app to market, along with gaining support from numerous Atos Top Executives. All participants in the IT Challenge will be invited to apply for an internship to work as part of the Atos organization.

The Concept

The IT Challenge is part of the Atos Wellbeing@work initiative and supports its objective to encourage and develop talent. It was set up in 2012 to foster and encourage innovation among the future generation of IT professionals. Teams from around 100 of the most prestigious universities in the world have already participated in the Atos IT Challenge and winning ideas for the Olympic Games, Connected Cars, Connected Living or in 2016 the Right to Be Forgotten were uncovered.

For more information about the contest and to register interest

Visit: www.atositchallenge.net

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