After the success of their spring hackaton, AI NI in partnership with Hackily have announced their next event will be a free datathon, taking place on 26th & 27th October 2019.
It will be hosted in Belfast by Queen’s University Belfast, and simultaneously in the North West by Ulster University at its Magee campus.
The theme will be developing data driven solutions by leveraging machine learning techniques, with an emphasis on up skilling and building community around data analytics and artificial intelligence.
The event is open to hackers of all experience levels and backgrounds.
Artificial Intelligence Northern Ireland (AI NI) is a community group focused around the development and support of the Northern Ireland AI community. It hosts a range of events designed to educate and stimulate discussion, but most importantly highlight the AI community.
The group has announced their platinum sponsor to be AquaQ Analytics, a provider of specialist data management, data analytics and data mining services. Headquartered in Belfast, the company has grown to over 150 consultants, servicing an ever expanding global client base of investment banks and hedge funds.
Jordan McDonald, co-founder of AI NI said: “We’re inviting data enthusiasts, developers, coders, anyone with an interest in big data and AI to get hands on practical experience in data and AI technologies. This is a great opportunity to nurture knowledge of a field that will be the key to the development of future technology. We’re asking the hackers to come up with ideas and prototypes which address a real public need rather than focus on financial incentive.”
Ronan Pairceir, CEO at AquaQ Analytics, added: "AquaQ works increasingly with AI technologies on client engagements in the Fintech sector. AI has become central to what we do in enabling our clients to maximise the value in their data. We are excited for the opportunity to promote AI further in NI and to interact more with the AI NI community.”
“We’ll be running streamed workshops (both entry level and advanced), and have plenty of mentors on hand to guide if people need the help,” said Chloe Thompson of the AI NI Academy. “The Datathon is also a great way to develop soft skills, such as being part of a team, project management and pitching.”
Austin Tanney, co-founder of AI NI, said “Our last AI NI hackathon was amazing. We pulled in over 200 AI enthusiasts to work together for a weekend on new ideas and the output was incredible making it very hard to pick the winners. With the awesome team we have pulled together to deliver this, I'm really looking forward to it being bigger and better and helping to build the skills base in AI.”
The event is also supported by Smashfly, MCS Group and Rapid7. Please contact gillian.hackily@gmail.com if you are interested in sponsorship opportunities.
If you’d like to come along and take part, tickets are free and you can register here.
