Siemens and the BMW Group have set themselves the task of strengthening Munich's AI ecosystem. Therefore, 50 young and ambitious AI experts were selected from 150 applicants for an AI hackathon to program new applications. Together with experts from both companies, they addressed practical questions related to the application areas of artificial intelligence.
The first CROSS-INDUSTRY AI HACK, a collaboration between Siemens and the BMW Group, took place at the Siemens AI Lab on the weekend of July 12-14. More than 50 AI enthusiasts took advantage of the opportunity to delve deeper into specific application areas of artificial intelligence, work together on the challenges posed, and implement them directly on-site.
Finding a solution in 48 hours
Siemens and the BMW Group presented participants with challenging tasks in various areas – so-called "tracks." Working in small teams, they developed their solution concepts in just under 48 hours and presented them on Saturday evening to a high-profile jury of AI experts, the participants, and selected guests.
“An important step in the right direction”
Experienced experts from the AI industry served as "track captains" to advise the teams during the hackathon. Both companies also provided participants with databases as a basis for programming.
“The pooling of expertise and know-how in the field of AI of two of Munich’s largest companies is an important step in the right direction to strengthen the Munich AI ecosystem,”
said Robert Lohmeyer, Siemens Corporate Technology.
Jury selects winning teams: “Really great”
The big showdown took place on Saturday, July 14, 2018: In the afternoon, all teams presented their innovative solutions to an audience of approximately 150 people. The jury, consisting of Stefan Perras, Marquart Franz (both Siemens), Felix Grabmeyer, Hans Prenninger (both BMW Group), and Eric Dolatre (CEO of Brabbler; founder of GMX), then selected the winning team at the closing ceremony on stage in front of the expert audience.
“It was truly amazing to see the results our participants achieved in two days working together with experts from Siemens and the BMW Group.”
The conclusion of Dr. Norbert Widmann, BMW Group IT.
The team "Trainable Object Detection from Mobile Cameras" ultimately won over the jury with its idea. Second and third place went to the teams "Data Generation using GANs" and "A BMW meets Affective Computing."
