To help attract the next wave of top talent, KPMG International hosted its 17th annual global KPMG Ideation Challenge (KIC) 2020 from August 24-25, 2020.
The hackathon-style competition, taking place virtually for the first time, gathered both STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and business students to help solve real-world business issues with AI and other emerging technology-based tools and solutions.
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Out of more than 8,000 applicants across 19 countries, 17 student teams were chosen from 500 leading universities to advance to the final phase of the event. The top three finalist teams were the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, India, Zhejiang University in China, and University of Florida in the US.
Team NAVACHARITAM (Technology Replaces Repetitiveness) from the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), was announced as the KIC winner for developing a solution that brings disruptive innovation to the mining industry, helping enable safer and more sustainable extraction.
Using a custom algorithm, sensor imaging and drone technology, the solution is designed to more precisely pinpoint the exact location of minerals to be extracted which would result in reductions in air pollution, time and cost, and improvements to worker safety.
The winning team members are: Sanchit Kumar, Varnika Kumari, Parth Hetamsaria and Srajan Gupta. The team is currently in the process of patenting their solution.
“The panel of judges selected the student team from the Indian Institute of Technology because they addressed a problem with global relevance – safety and sustainability in the mining industry – and developed a solution that was commercially and technically viable,” said Phil Thornley, Partner with KPMG Australia and a lead practitioner with KPMG’s Global Lighthouse Center of Excellence for Data, AI and Emerging Technologies.
“This technology shows great promise; it has the potential to offer significant safety, environmental and cost benefits.”
The winning team will receive $50,000 in seed funding to bring their idea to market with coaching and guidance from KPMG.
